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THE    SON    OF    xMAX 
Eneravfil  from  the  Fnmnu<,  pointing  of  "  Christ  and  the.  Rich    Young  Ruler  " 


JESUS  CHRIST 


THE  UNIQUE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father. — John  14:9„^- — ^77~x~DD77i7r~" 

By 

JOSEPH  T.  GIBSON,  D.D. 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London        and        Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1915,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  St.,W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:     100  Princes  Street 


DEDICATED  TO  THE  SACRED  MEMORY  OF 
MY  DEAR  WIFE.  ISABEL,  WHOSE  PURE. 
GENTLE  AND  LOVING  COMPANIONSHIP  FOR 
MANY  YEARS  WAS  A  CONSTANT  MANIFES- 
TATION OF  THE  POWER  OF  DIVINE  LOVE 
DWELLING  IN  A  HUMAN  HEART.  AND 
WHOSE  GOING  TO  THE  FATHER'S  HOUSE 
HAS  BROUGHT  HEAVEN  NEARER.  MAKING 
THE  LOVE  AND  TJHE  PROMISES  OF  JESUS 
MORE  REAL  AND  MORE   PRECIOUS 


PREFACE 

IN  preparing  this  volume  the  author  has  sought  to  see 
and  to  aid  others  in  seeing  Jesus  Christ  as  he  is 
presented  to  men  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament.  It  is  designed  especially  for  those  who 
accept  the  Word  of  God  which  is  contained  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures  as  the  only  infallable  and  sufficient  rule  of 
faith  and  duty.  It  recognizes  the  Christian  religion  as 
a  unique,  supernatural,  revealed  religion.  It  recognizes 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  great  center  of  beneficent  attraction 
and  the  only  adequate  source  of  power  for  the  develop- 
ment of  perfect  manhood.  In  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God,  this  volume  finds  the  one  name  that  binds 
into  one  book  the  thirty-nine  pamphlets  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  twenty-seven  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is, 
therefore,  first  of  all  designed  for  those  who  wish  to  see 
Jesus  Christ  as  He  is  presented  to  men  in  the  Bible. 

Nevertheless,  this  volume  has  a  message  for  those  who 
have  not  accepted  the  Bible  as  a  divinely  inspired  book 
and  have  not  accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  Jesus  Christ  has  exerted 
such  an  influence  on  the  world  as  to  arrest  the  attention 
of  all  intelligent  men  in  every  part  of  the  world.  During 
his  public  ministry  his  mighty  works  and  wondrous 
words  so  interested  men  that  "he  could  not  be  hid." 
After  his  death,  resurrection  and  ascension,  his  fame 
went  abroad  into  all  the  world,  and  he  has  come  to  be 
recognized  as  the  center  of  beneficent  attraction  for  all 
men  of  every  race  and  nation.  No  intelligent  man  can 
afford  in  this  day  to  ignore  the  world-wide  influence  of 
the  person  and  work  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  this  vol- 
ume is  designed  to  aid  all  who  are  sincerely  inquiring 
what  they  ought  to  do  with  him. 

7 


8  PREFACE 

Moreover  the  believer  finds  in  the  history  of  the  in- 
carnation, life,  death,  resurrection  and  ascension  of  Jesus 
Christ  a  character  sketch  that  is  infinitely  superior  to  all 
the  works  of  fiction  that  the  most  gifted  imagination  ever 
invented,  for  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard  nor  the 
heart  of  man  conceived  anything  so  wonderful  as  the  per- 
son and  work  of  Immanuel. 

The  author  has  reckoned  literary  beauty  less  important 
than  accurate  statements  of  what  is  found  in  the  inspired 
records,  and,  when  it  has  seemed  necessary,  has  not  hesi- 
tated to  interrupt  the  smooth  flow  of  the  narrative  in 
order  to  secure  exact  statement  of  important  facts. 

The  suggestions  of  the  godly  and  scholarly  men  who 
have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  great  work  of  helping 
others  to  see  Jesus  as  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life, 
have  been  used  freely,  but  their  names  have  only  been 
mentioned  when  their  words  as  well  as  their  thoughts 
were  used. 

In  seeking  to  harmonize  the  narratives  of  the  four 
evangelists  the  order  of  events  that  seemed  to  do  least 
violence  to  any  of  the  inspired  records  has  been  chosen. 

How  far  this  work  may  confirm  the  faith  and  stimulate 
the  devotion  of  others  the  writer  does  not  know,  but  he 
can  say  with  sincere  and  profound  gratitude  that  his 
labours  have  been  amply  rewarded  by  the  glimpses  he  has 
caught  of  the  Perfect  Man,  and  by  the  fellowship  he  has 
enjoyed  as  he  studied  this  wondrous  life.  His  own  ex- 
perience confirms  the  belief  that  the  weary,  the  dis- 
couraged, the  anxious,  the  labouring  and  heavy-laden  can 
find  rest  and  peace  by  coming  to  Jesus  Christ  and  learn- 
ing of  him  who  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  "To  every 
one  that  believeth  he  is  precious." 

Pittsburgh.  J.  T.  G. 


CONTENTS 

I.  The  Birth  o^  Jesus  Christ  . 

II.  The  Infancy  oe  Jesus  Christ 

III.  The  Childhood  oe  Jesus  Christ 

IV.  Life  at  Nazareth     . 
V.  John  the  Baptist     . 

VI.    The  Baptism  oe  Jesus     . 
VII.     The  Temptation 
VIII.     Christ's  First  Disciple  . 

IX.    A  Marriage  Feast  and  the  First 

Miracle 

X.    Jesus  in  Capernaum 

XI.     Christ's  First  Oeeicial  Visit  to 

Jerusalem      .... 
XII.    Jesus  Christ  and  Nicodemus 

XIII.  The  Disciples  oe  Jesus  Baptizing 

in  Judea        .... 

XIV.  Jesus  in  Samaria 
XV.    Jesus  Rejected  at  Nazareth 

XVI.    First  Sabbath  in  Capernaum 
XVII.     By  the  Sea  oe  Galilee 
XVIII.     First  Circuit  oe  Galilee 
XIX.    Forgiving  Sin  and  Healing 
Paralytic 
XX.    The  Calling  oe  Matthew 
XXI.    A  Feast  at   Jerusalem   and 

Pool  of  Bethseda 
XXII.    Controversy  Concerning  the 
BATH        .... 
9 


THE 


THE 

Sab 


13 

23 
31 
35 
40 

45 
48 

55 

61 
67 

70 
75 

80 
83 
91 
99 

105 
no 

114 
118 

123 

130 


lO 


XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 


XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 
XXXIV. 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 

XXXVIII. 

XXXIX. 

XL. 

XLI. 

XXII. 

XUII. 


CONTENTS 

Calling  the  Twelve  and  the  Ser- 
mon ON  THE  Mount    .       .       .137 
Healing  the  Centurion's  Servant     151 
Raising  the  Young  Man  of  Nain     155 
A  Message  erom  John  the  Baptist. 

The  Anointing  oe  Jesus  .  159 
Teaching  and  Healing  in  Galilee  166 
Teaching  by  Parables  .  .  .171 
The    Mother    and    Brethren    of 

Jesus 182 

Christ  Stilling  the  Storm  on 
Galilee  and  Healing  a  De- 
moniac   185 

The     Sending     Forth     of     the 

Apostles 192 

The  Murder  of  John  the  Baptist 

AND   Feeding   Five   Thousand     198 
Jesus  Walks  on  the  Sea       .       .     206 
Jesus'   Popularity   Begins  to   De- 
cline        210 

Jesus    and    the    Syro-Phcenician 

Woman 219 

From   Phcenicia  Through   Decap- 

OLis  TO  Galilee  ....  224 
The  Great  Confession  .  .  .  228 
The  Transfiguration  .  .  .  235 
Healing  a  Demoniac  Boy  .  .  240 
Closing  of  the  Galilean  Ministry  245 
On  the  Way  to  Jerusalem  .  -251 
Mission  of  the  Seventy,  the  Good 
.  Samaritan  and  First  Visit  to 

Bethany 257 

At  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles      .    266 


CONTENTS 


II 


XLIV. 

XLV. 

XLVI. 

XLVII. 

XLVIIL 


XLIX. 

L. 

LI. 

LII. 

LIII. 

LIV. 

LV. 

LVL 

LVII. 

LVIIL 

LIX. 

LX. 

LXI. 

LXII. 

LXIIL 

LXIV. 

LXV. 


The  Woman  Accused  oe  Adultery    271 

Jesus  Teaching  in  the  Tempee      .     275 

Healing  the  Man  Born  Beind      .     283 

Discourse   Concerning   Blasphemy 

Against  the  Holy  Spirit       .     296 

Breakfast  in  a  Pharisee's  House. 
Other  Incidents  and  Dis- 
courses    303 

Jesus  at  the  Feast  of  the  Dedica- 
tion          314 

From  the  Feast  of  the  Dedication 

to  the  Raising  of  Lazarus      .     317 

The  Raising  of  Lazarus  and  De- 
parture  TO   Ephraim        .       .     338 

From  the  Raising  of  Lazarus  Un- 
til THE  Coming  to  Jericho  346 

Jesus  at  Jericho 

Jesus  in  Bethany 

The  First  Day  of  Passion  Week 

Monday  of  Passion  Week 

Tuesday  of  Passion  Week 

Wednesday  of   Passion   Week 

The  Last  Passover 

The  Agony  in  the  Garden 

The  Arrest 

Before  the  High  Priests  and  the 
Sanhedrin     .... 

Before  Pilate       .... 

The  Crucifixion  .... 

The  Resurrection 

Index      


THE  BIRTH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Luke  2 :  15.  "Let  us  now  go  even  unto  Bethlehem,  and  see 
this  thing  that  is  come  to  pass,  which  the  Lord  hath  made  known 
unto  us." 

(Matthew  1:1-25;  Luke  1:1-2:20,  and  2:23-38;  John  i: 
1-14.) 

WHILE  Judean  shepherds  were  watching  their 
flocks  by  night  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  lit- 
tle town  of  Bethlehem,  Judea,  they  saw  an 
angel  of  the  Lord  standing  by  them,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  shining  round  about  them,  and  they  were  sore 
afraid.  The  angel  said  to  them,  "Be  not  afraid ;  for  be- 
hold, I  bring  you  good  tidings  of  great  joy,  which  shall 
be  to  all  the  people ;  for  there  is  born  to  you  this  day  a 
Saviour,  which  is  Christ  the  Lord."  The  angel  then 
added,  "Ye  shall  find  a  babe  wrapped  in  swaddling 
clothes,  and  lying  in  a  manger.  When  the  angel  had  said 
this,  suddenly  there  was  with  him  a  multitude  of  the 
heavenly  host,  praising  God,  and  saying, 

"Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace  among  men  in  whom  he  is  well  pleased." 

After  seeing  the  angel,  hearing  his  message  and  listen- 
ing to  the  heavenly  choir,  the  shepherds  said  to  each  other, 
"Let  us  now  go  even  unto  Bethlehem  and  see  this  thing 
that  is  come  to  pass  which  the  Lord  hath  made  known 

13 


14   JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

unto  us."  When  they  came  to  the  little  village  they 
found  a  babe  lying  in  the  manger  of  a  stable  attached  to 
the  overcrowded  inn. 

Who  is  this  little  child?  What  is  known  of  his  par- 
entage and  why  is  he  introduced  to  the  world  in  this 
unique  and  marvelous  way? 

It  is  important  that  we  should  have  a  definite  answer 
to  these  questions  if  we  are  to  understand  and  rightly  in- 
terpret his  life.  Seeking  these  answers,  one  might  be 
willing  to  go  to  Bethlehem  in  order  to  talk  with  the 
shepherds  and  see  what  they  saw,  but  this  is  impossible, 
for  all  this  came  to  pass  more  than  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago.  One  might  go  to  the  little  white  town  five 
miles  from  Jerusalem,  he  might  visit  the  church  of  the 
Nativity  as  it  stands  above  the  orchards  and  vineyards 
surrounding  the  village ;  he  might  look  into  a  cave  that  is 
called  the  Cave  of  the  Nativity,  but  all  this  would  do 
very  little  in  the  way  of  helping  him  to  know  the  pro- 
found meaning  of  the  angel's  message.  Nor  would  it 
avail  much  if  one  could  go  back  nineteen  hundred  years 
and  see  just  what  the  shepherds  saw  with  the  outward 
eye.  They  saw  only  a  little  child  wrapped  in  swaddling 
clothes  lying  in  a  manger.  Many  of  those  who  dwelt  in 
Bethlehem  at  the  time  Jesus  was  born  either  knew  noth- 
ing of  the  event  or  thought  of  it  with  indifference. 

The  principal  source  of  information  for  determining 
the  identity  of  this  child  is  a  book  that  Christians  call 
the  Bible,  comprising  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament.  The  Old  Testament,  comprising  thirty-nine 
books  is  identical  with  the  sacred  writings  of  the  Hebrew 
nation  that  were  in  existence  at  the  time  this  child  was 
born.  These  sacred  writings,  after  giving  an  account  of 
the  creation  of  the  parents  of  mankind,  of  their  living 
in  Eden  in  holy  and  happy  communion  and  covenant  re- 


THE  BIRTH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  15 

lations  with  their  Creator,  go  on  to  tell  a  marvelous  story 
of  their  rebellion  against  God  and  of  their  expulsion  from 
Eden.  As  these  parents  of  mankind  stood  outside  the 
barred  gates  of  the  earthly  paradise,  they  had  from  their 
Creator  a  promise  that  the  seed  of  the  woman  should 
destroy  the  tempter  who  led  them  in  rebellion  against 
God.  How  far  they  understood  the  profound  meaning  of 
that  promise,  no  one  can  tell.  Of  the  times  and  the  sea- 
sons, of  the  long  years  of  sin  and  suffering,  of  the  clearer 
and  more  complete  revelation  that  must  precede  and  pre- 
pare the  way  for  its  fulfillment,  they  knew  nothing,  but 
they  were  saved  by  hope.  The  most  careful  students  of 
these  sacred  scriptures  believe  that  these  promises  had 
their  fulfillment  in  the  birth  of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem. 

These  sacred  writings  of  the  Hebrews,  after  giving  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  descendants  of  the  parents  of  mankind 
during  many  centuries,  devote  many  pages  to  an  account 
of  the  life  of  Abraham,  the  fountain  head  of  Hebrew 
history.  This  man  was  called  of  God  to  go  forth  from  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees  across  the  great  river  Euphrates,  and 
journey  through  the  land  now  called  Palestine  that  was 
to  him  a  land  of  promise.  According  to  these  Hebrew 
scriptures  God  had  promised  Abraham  that  in  his  seed 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.  He  seemed 
to  have  no  knowledge  of  the  time  that  must  intervene  be- 
fore the  promise  should  be  fulfilled,  but  in  the  light  of  the 
promise  given  to  him  he  looked  down  through  the  ages, 
saw  Christ's  day  and  rejoiced  in  it.  He  could  not  discern 
the  externals,  as  the  Judean  shepherds  did  when  they  saw 
the  infant  Saviour  lying  in  a  manger,  but  he  did  see  the 
promised  seed  in  whom  all  nations  should  find  a  blessing. 
The  child  born  at  Bethlehem  is  the  promised  seed  of  Abra- 
ham. 


i6    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

These  Hebrew  scriptures  give  a  brief  history  of  the 
descendants  of  Abraham,  telling  of  their  journey  through 
the  Land  of  Palestine  unto  the  third  generation  when 
they  go  down  into  Egypt  and  afterwards  become  slaves 
to  the  Egyptians.  After  speaking  of  their  tears  and  cries 
on  account  of  Egyptian  oppression  they  tell  the  story  of 
deliverance  by  one  of  their  own  nation  named  Moses, 
who  was  saved  from  death  by  an  Egyptian  princess, 
educated  in  the  palace,  chose  afflictions  with  the  Hebrew 
slaves,  rather  than  the  honours  of  the  Egyptians ;  became 
a  shepherd  in  the  wilderness,  talked  with  God  at  Horeb, 
and  became  the  deliverer  of  his  people.  This  Moses  said 
to  his  people,  "The  Lord  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto  thee 
a  prophet  from  the  midst  of  thee,  like  unto  me;  unto 
him  shall  ye  hearken."  This  promise  was  cherished  by 
the  nation,  and  students  of  these  scriptures  find  its  ful- 
fillment in  the  birth  of  Christ. 

The  students  of  these  Hebrew  scriptures,  from  the  time 
of  Moses,  find  in  them  constant  reference  to  this  promised 
seed  of  Abraham,  and  each  succeeding  reference  seems 
to  become  more  definite.  A  prophet  who  loves  the  wages 
of  unrighteousness  claims  that  he  is  controlled  by  the 
divine  Spirit  as  he  says,  when  he  refuses  to  curse  Israel, 

"I  see  him,  but  not  now, 
I  behold  him,  but  not  nigh, 
There  shall  come  forth  a  star  out  of  Jacob 
And  a  scepter  shall  arise  out  of  Israel." 

In  this  prophecy  one  may  see,  not  only  David,  the  king 
of  Israel,  but  David's  greater  Son, — the  Babe  of  Bethle- 
hem. Again  a  promise  is  given  to  David  that  his  seed 
should  sit  on  his  throne  forever,  and  an  intimation  is 
given  that  the  fruit  of  David's  body  and  the  son  of  David 


THE  BIRTH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  17 

should  be  more  than  the  son  of  David,  because  the  proph- 
ecy reads : 

"1  will  tell  the  decree, 
The  Lord  said  unto  me,  thou  art  my  son, 
This  day  have  I  begotten  thee." 

Isaiah,  the  great  evangelistic  prophet  of  these  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  says,  "There  shall  come  forth  a 
shoot  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse  and  a  branch  out  of  his 
roots  shall  bear  fruit,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  shall 
rest  upon  him."  This  promise  is  repeated  in  the  prophecy 
of  Jeremiah,  as  he  writes,  "Behold,  the  day  is  come,  saith 
the  Lord,  that  I  will  raise  unto  David  a  righteous  Branch, 
and  a  King  shall  reign  and  prosper,  and  shall  execute 
judgment  and  justice  in  the  earth."  Then  Isaiah  writes, 
"Behold,  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son  and  shall 
call  his  name  Immanuel" :  and,  again  this  great  prophet 
seems  to  be  carried  forward,  so  as  to  be  living  amid  the 
scenes  of  his  prophetic  vision,  and  he  writes,  "Unto  us  a 
child  is  born ;  unto  us  a  son  is  given ;  and  the  government 
shall  be  upon  his  shoulders ;  and  his  name  shall  be  called 
Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God,  Everlasting  Father, 
Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and 
peace  there  shall  be  no  end,  upon  the  throne  of  David, 
and  upon  his  kingdom  to  establish  it." 

After  Isaiah  comes  the  prophet  Daniel  who,  in  the 
judgment  of  many  Biblical  scholars,  fixes  the  time,  as  he 
says,  "Know  therefore  and  understand  that  from  the 
going  forth  of  the  commandment  to  restore  and  rebuild 
Jerusalem  unto  the  Christ,  the  Prince,  shall  be  seven 
weeks,  and  three  score  and  two  weeks."  Then  there  is 
the  prophet  Micah  telling  the  place,  as  he  says,  "Thou 
Bethlehem,  Ephratah,  though  thou  be  little  among  the 
thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of  thee  shall  he  come  forth 


i8    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

unto  me  that  is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel,  whose  goings  forth 
have  been  from  of  old,  from  everlasting." 

In  the  light  of  these  and  many  other  Old  Testament 
Scriptures  we  come  to  Bethlehem,  and  see  the  virgin- 
born  Son  of  God,  the  promised  Saviour.  Here  is  the 
fulfillment  of  the  promises.  Here  is  the  one  point  to 
which  the  rays  of  spiritual  light  from  the  promises, 
prophecies  and  types  of  the  Old  Testament  converge. 
Here  is  Israel's  consolation  and  the  hope  of  a  lost  world, 
the  Babe  of  Bethlehem. 

The  second  great  source  of  information  concerning  this 
child  is  the  New  Testament.  Three  New  Testament 
writers,  Matthew,  Luke  and  John,  tell  of  this  child,  but 
each  in  his  own  way  and  from  his  own  view  point.  They 
introduce  their  sketches  of  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  by 
telling  either  of  his  parentage,  or  of  his  pre-existence.  • 
Matthew  and  Luke  give  extended  genealogies,  Matthew 
going  backward  to  Abraham,  and  Luke  going  backward 
to  the  parents  of  mankind.  John  tells  of  the  pre-existence 
of  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  before  the  creation  of  the 
world. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  turn  aside  from  the  narrative  and 
enter  into  a  discussion  as  to  how  the  genealogies  of  Luke 
and  Matthew  can  be  mutually  reconciled.  They  are  inde- 
pendent records,  and  our  not  being  able  to  harmonize 
them  at  all  points  only  indicates  lack  of  knowledge  of  all 
the  times  and  all  the  circumstances.  It  may  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  Luke  tells  of  the  birth  of  Christ  from  the  view- 
point of  Mary,  the  virgin  mother,  that  Matthew  tells  of 
the  same  event  as  it  was  revealed  to  Joseph  the  husband 
of  Mary,  and  John  speaks  of  it  as  the  heavenly  Father 
sees  it. 

First  of  all  the  evangelist  John  gives  to  this  little  child 
an  absolutely  unique  place  amongst  the  children  of  men 


THE  BIRTH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  19 

by  declaring  his  personal  pre-existence  as  the  Word  of 
God.  He  says  "In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
Word  was  with  God  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same 
was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things  were  made  by 
him ;  and  without  him  was  not  anything  made  that  hath 
been  made.  In  him  was  life  and  the  life  was  the  light  of 
men."  He  goes  on  to  say  "The  Word  became  flesh,  and 
dwelt  amongst  us  (and  we  beheld  his  glory,  glory  as  of 
the  only  begotten  from  the  Father)  full  of  grace,  and 
truth." 

The  events  in  immediate  connection  with  the  birth  of  the 
child  are  as  follows.  An  aged  and  righteous  priest  named 
Zacharias,  ministering  in  his  appointed  course  at  the 
temple,  entered  into  the  holy  place  to  burn  incense.  The 
multitude  were  praying  without.  Zacharias  saw  an 
angel  standing  at  the  right  side  of  the  altar  of  incense, 
and  was  awe  stricken.  The  angel  said  to  him,  "Fear  not, 
Zacharias ;  thy  supplication  is  heard,  and  thy  wife  Elisa- 
beth shall  bear  thee  a  son,  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name 
John.  Thou  shalt  have  joy  and  gladness,  and  many  shall 
rejoice  at  his  birth ;  for  he  shall  be  great  in  the  sight  of 
the  Lord."  The  angel  then  revealed  to  Zacharias  that 
his  son  should  come  in  the  spirit  of  Elijah  and  that  he 
should  be  the  herald  and  forerunner  of  the  Christ.  When 
Zacharias  doubted  and  asked  for  a  sign,  the  angel  said 
to  him,  "I  am  Gabriel,  that  stand  in  the  presence  of  God ; 
and  I  was  sent  to  speak  unto  thee  and  to  bring  thee  these 
good  tidings.  And,  behold,  thou  shalt  be  silent  and  not 
able  to  speak  until  the  day  that  these  things  shall  come 
to  pass." 

Six  months  after  this  the  angel  Gabriel  came  to  Naza- 
reth, an  obscure  village  of  Gallilee,  to  a  maiden  named 
Mary,  betrothed  to  a  man  named  Joseph.  The  angel 
saluted  Mary  saying,  "Hail,  thou  art  highly  favoured; 


20    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  Lord  is  with  thee."  Then  the  angel  revealed  to  Mary 
the  great  secret  of  the  ages,  the  coming  fulfillment  of  the 
many  promises  and  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures,  telling  her  of  the  miraculous  conception  and 
birth  of  her  son,  who  should  be  called  the  Son  of  the 
Most  High,  and  to  whom  the  Lord  God  would  give  the 
throne  of  David. 

After  Mary  had  heard  the  angel's  message  she  went 
on  a  journey  to  a  little  town  in  the  hill  country  of  Judah 
to  spend  three  months  with  Elisabeth,  the  wife  of  Zacha- 
rias.    Her  heart  overflowed  with  joy  and  she  said, 

"My  soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord, 
And  my  spirit  hath  rejoiced  in  God  my  Saviour, 
For  he  hath  looked  upon  the  low  estate  of  his  hand  maiden ; 
For  behold  henceforth  all  generations  shall  call  me  blessed." 

Mary  was  betrothed  to  a  man  named  Joseph  at  the 
time  of  the  miraculous  conception.  An  angel  visited 
Joseph  and  said  to  him,  "Thou  son  of  David,  fear  not  to 
take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wife ;  for  that  which  is  conceived 
in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  she  shall  bring  forth  a 
son,  and  thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus ;  for  it  is  he  that 
shall  save  the  people  from  their  sins."  The  angel  also 
told  Joseph  that  this  had  come  to  pass  as  the  fulfillment 
of  a  prophecy.  The  prophecy  reads  as  follows  :  "Behold, 
a  virgin  shall  be  with  child  and  shall  bring  forth  a  son, 
and  they  shall  call  his  name  Immanuel,  which,  being  in- 
terpreted, is  God  with  us." 

After  Mary  returned  to  Nazareth  the  promised  son  was 
born  to  Zacharias,  and  the  father,  who  had  been  unable 
to  speak  from  the  time  the  angel  appeared  to  him  and 
announced  the  birth  of  his  son,  wrote,  "His  name  shall 
be  called  John."    The  long  silence  was  then  broken  and 


THE  BIRTH  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  21 

Zacharias,  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  uttered  his  song 
of  praise,  saying : 

"Blessed  be  the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel; 
For  he  hath  visited,  and  wrought  redemption  for  his  people." 

Mary's  home  was  in  Nazareth,  but  the  Christ  of  proph- 
ecy was  to  be  born  in  Bethlehem.  How  can  this  prophecy 
be  fulfilled?  This  question  is  answered  in  a  way  that 
indicates  how  the  ruler  of  men  makes  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes.  Augustus 
Caesar,  the  emperor  at  Rome,  does  not  dream  that  he  is 
helping  to  carry  out  any  divine  plan  and  fulfill  a  divine 
promise  that  a  child  shall  be  born  at  Bethlehem,  Judea, 
instead  of  being  born  at  Nazareth  in  Galilee.  Neverthe- 
less, Augustus  issues  a  decree  for  a  world  wide  enrollment 
of  his  subjects.  This  decree  comes  to  be  an  essential  part 
of  the  divine  plan  that  this  child  should  be  born  in  Beth- 
lehem. Joseph  and  Mary  were  both  of  the  tribe  of  Judah, 
of  the  line  of  David,  and,  in  order  to  keep  up  their  tribal 
relations,  must  be  enrolled  at  Bethlehem.  It  is  a  long 
journey,  but  sacred  rites  and  sacred  duties  are  involved, 
and  Joseph  with  Mary,  his  betrothed  wife,  do  not  fail  to 
appear  in  Bethlehem  for  enrollment.  While  in  Bethlehem 
Mary  brought  forth  her  first  born,  wrapped  him  in 
swaddling  clothes,  and  laid  him  in  a  manger,  because 
there  was  no  room  for  them  in  the  inn.  The  world  had 
been  thousands  of  years  preparing  for  this  event ;  proph- 
ets had  foretold  it,  fixing  definitely  the  time  and  the  place ; 
the  angel  Gabriel  had  announced  that  the  time  was  at 
hand;  a  Roman  emperor  had  sent  out  into  all  his  prov- 
inces a  decree  that  was  an  essential  part  of  the  prepara- 
tion, and  yet  the  Son  of  God  was  cradled  in  a  manger, 
because  there  was  no  room  for  the  mother  and  child  in  the 
inn. 


22    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Any  one  who  believes  that  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  are  in  any  sense  a  divine  revelation 
and  not  mere  dreams,  will  see  in  the  birth  of  this  little 
child  the  greatest  event  in  human  history.  This  child 
is  the  promised  seed  of  the  woman  that  should  bruise  the 
head  of  the  serpent,  the  promised  seed  of  Abraham  in 
whom  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed,  the 
virgin  born  Son  of  God,  who  is  to  be  the  Saviour  of  a 
lost  world. 


II 

THE  INFANCY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Mat.  2 :  i6.    "Out  of  Egypt  did  I  call  my  son." 
(Mat.  2  :  1-23 ;   Luke  2 :  21-39.) 

THE  evangelists  only  tell  of  five  events  connected 
with  the  first  eleven  years  of  the  life  of  the  little 
child  that  was  born  at  Bethlehem.  Luke  tells  of 
his  circumcision  and  of  his  presentation  in  the  temple, 
while  Matthew  tells  of  the  coming  of  wise  men  from  the 
East,  of  his  being  carried  down  into  Egypt  and  of  his 
return  to  Nazareth.  Matthew  records  events  that  are  re- 
markable fulfillments  of  Old  Testament  prophecies  and 
Luke  tells  of  the  careful  observance  of  Old  Testament 
rites. 

The  mutual  independence  of  the  two  narratives  may 
leave  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  exact  order  in  which  these 
two  events  occurred.  The  circumcision  was  on  the  eighth 
day,  and  the  presentation  at  the  temple  could  not  take 
place  befor-e  the  fortieth  day.  It  does  not  seem  pos- 
sible that  the  wise  men  came  until  after  the  presentation 
at  the  temple. 

Concerning  the  first  event,  Luke,  after  telling  of  the 
visit  of  the  shepherds,  adds,  "And  when  eight  days  were 
fulfilled  for  circumcising  him,  his  name  was  called  Jesus, 
which  was  so  called  by  the  angel  before  he  was  conceived." 

This  'brief  statement  reveals  God's  wondrous  patience 
in  the  outworking  of  his  great  scheme  of  redemption. 

23 


24    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Two  thousand  years  had  elapsed  since  circumcision  had 
been  given  to  Abraham  as  the  sign  and  seal  of  the 
covenant,  and  now  the  promised  seed  of  Abraham  is 
circumcised. 

There  is  no  detailed  account  of  the  presentation  in  the 
temple.  The  law  of  Moses,  Leviticus  12,  specifies  that 
the  mother  of  a  first  born  son  should  appear  at  the  temple 
on  the  fortieth  day  after  the  birth  of  her  child,  bringing 
with  her  a  lamb  for  a  burnt  offering.  If  the  mother 
could  not  afford  a  lamb  she  was  to  offer  two  turtle  doves 
or  two  young  pigeons.  Mary  belonged  to  this  latter  class. 
When  she  brought  the  Lord  of  the  temple  to  the  temple 
of  the  Lord  she  could  only  offer  the  two  turtle  doves  or 
the  two  young  pigeons.  The  presentation  of  this  Babe 
seemed  to  the  ordinary  beholder  a  very  unimportant 
event.  There  was,  however,  a  devout  and  venerable  man 
at  Jerusalem  at  that  time  named  Simeon  who  had  been 
looking  for  the  consolation  of  Israel  and  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  upon  him.  The  Holy  Spirit  had  revealed  to  this  man 
that  he  should  not  die  until  he  had  seen  the  Lord's  Christ. 
When  the  parents  brought  the  child  Jesus  to  the  temple 
Simeon  was  led  by  the  Spirit  into  the  temple,  and  he 
took  the  little  child  in  his  arms  and  blessed  God  saying, 

"Now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart,  O  Lord, 
According  to  thy  word,  in  peace, 
For  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation, 
Which  thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face  of  all  peoples, 
A  light  for  revelation  to  the  Gentiles, 
And  the  glory  of  thy  people  Israel." 

Then,  turning  to  the  astonished  parents,  he  blessed 
them,  and  said  unto  Mary,  "Behold  this  child  is  set  for 
the  falling  and  rising  up  of  many  in  Israel,  and  for  a 
sign  which  is  spoken  against;    yea,  and  a  sword  shall 


THE  INFANCY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  25 

pierce  through  thine  own  soul,  that  thoughts  out  of  many 
hearts  may  be  revealed."  Simeon  had  scarcely  uttered 
these  words  when  an  aged  prophetess,  named  Anna,  who 
had  not  departed  from  the  temple  for  many  years,  but 
had  worshipped  with  fasting  and  supplications  night  and 
day,  came  forward  and  gave  thanks  to  God,  speaking  to 
all  who  were  looking  for  the  redemption  of  Jerusalem. 

If  there  were  no  other  sources  of  information  than  the 
gospel  by  Luke,  we  might  infer  that  Joseph  and  Mary 
had  gone  from  Jerusalem  directly  to  their  home  in  Naza- 
reth; but,  when  we  turn  to  the  gospel  by  Matthew,  we 
find  a  record  of  events  that  could  hardly  have  preceded 
Christ's  presentation  at  the  temple.  These  events  con- 
nect this  little  child  with  Egypt  in  a  remarkable  way,  and 
are  declared  to  be  the  fulfillment  of  an  Old  Testament 
prophecy  found  in  the  book  of  Hosea.  This  prophecy 
reads,  "When  Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him  and 
called  my  son  out  of  Egypt." 

Matthew  introduces  his  account  of  these  events  by  say- 
ing that,  when  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethlehem  of  Judea  in 
the  days  of  Herod  the  king,  wise  men  from  the  East 
came  to  Jerusalem,  saying,  "Where  is  he  that  is  born 
King  of  the  Jews  ?  for  we  have  seen  his  star  in  the  East, 
and  are  come  to  worship  him." 

Who  these  wise  men  were,  their  number,  their  names 
and  whence  they  came,  we  are  not  told.  Such  historians 
as  Tacitus,  Suetonius  and  Josephus  tell  us  that  at  that 
time  throughout  all  the  East  there  was  a  belief  that  a 
/  monarch  would  arise  in  Judea,  and  that  he  should  wield 
a  sceptre  of  universal  dominion.  We  only  know  that 
these  Magi  were  from  the  East,  and  they  probably  shared 
this  general  expectation.  The  traditions  that  they  were 
kings,  that  they  were  Arabians,  that  their  names  were 
Melchior,  Caspar  and  Balthasar,  and  that  they  were  de- 


26    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

scendants  of  Shem,  Ham  and  Japheth,  can  be  traced  to 
no  reliable  source,  and  are  of  no  value.  Neither  do  we 
know  anything  about  the  new  star,  except  what  we  learn 
from  the  inspired  record.  If,  by  our  study  of  astronomy, 
we  could  see,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  there 
was  at  that  time  a  most  extraordinary  conjunction  of  the 
planets,  and  that  a  new  star  or  meteor  had  appeared  and 
hovered  over  Jerusalem  and  Bethlehem,  it  would  not  be 
of  any  value  as  a  confirmation  of  Christian  faith.  One 
class  of  men  would  say  that  it  proved  the  history  true; 
another  class  would  say,  with  equal  reason,  that  it  dis- 
proved the  miraculous  and  supernatural.  It  would  be  of 
no  value  either  way.  The  whole  narrative  of  the  birth 
and  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  we  have  it  from  the  different 
evangelists,  lifts  it  out  of  the  realm  of  the  natural. 

Herod,  the  king,  heard  of  the  coming  of  these  wise 
men  and  of  their  search  and  was  troubled.  Our  knowl- 
edge of  Herod,  derived  from  other  sources,  enables  us  to 
appreciate  the  full  meaning  of  this  statement.  This  was 
Herod  the  Great,  the  builder  of  the  temple,  the  murderer 
of  his  wife  and  of  his  own  sons,  and  of  most  of  his  rela- 
tives. His  life  of  splendid,  but  criminal  and  miserable 
success  was  rapidly  sinking  into  jealous,  savage  decrepi- 
tude. But  he  was  as  crafty  as  he  was  cruel,  as  diplomatic 
as  he  was  blood  thirsty,  and,  though  war  was  in  his  heart, 
his  words  were  smoother  than  butter.  He  summoned  all 
the  chief  priests  and  scribes  of  the  people,  and  inquired 
of  them  where  the  Christ  should  be  born.  They  an- 
swered, "In  Bethlehem  of  Judea,"  and  quoted  as  their 
authority  the  prophecy  of  Micah.  Herod  had  a  private 
conference  with  the  wise  men,  in  which  he  inquired  care- 
fully when  the  star  appeared,  and  then  said,  "Go  and 
3earch  out  exactly  concerning  the  young  child ;  and,  when 


THE  INFANCY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  27 

ye  have  found  him,  bring  me  word,  that  I  also  may  come 
and  worship  him." 

Leaving  Herod,  the  wise  men  followed  the  star  to  Beth- 
lehem till  it  came  and  stood  over  where  the  young  child 
was.  With  great  joy  they  came  into  the  house,  and,  see- 
ing the  young  child  with  Mary  his  mother,  they  fell  down 
and  worshipped  him  and  offered  unto  him  gifts,  gold, 
frankincense  and  myrrh. 

Whether  the  Magi  suspected  Herod  of  treachery,  we 
do  not  know,  but  when  they  were  about  to  return  to  their 
own  country,  they  were  warned  of  God  to  not  tell  Herod, 
and  they  returned  by  another  way.  They  had  come  sud- 
denly out  of  the  East  and,  as  suddenly,  they  disappeared. 
In  their  own  way  and  time  they  had  performed  their  part 
in  recognizing  the  mystery  of  godliness,  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh. 

After  they  had  departed,  an  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared 
to  Joseph  in  a  dream,  telling  him  to  take  the  young  child 
and  his  mother  and  flee  into  Egypt,  and  remain  there  until 
called  thence,  for  Herod  would  seek  to  kill  the  child. 
Joseph  obeyed  promptly,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for 
the  fulfillment  of  the  word  of  the  Lord,  as  he  had  said 
by  his  prophet  Hosea,  "Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called  my 
son." 

Of  the  journey  into  Egypt,  and  of  the  time  spent  there, 
nothing  is  known  except  by  inference  from  a  very  brief 
record.  No  reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  apocryphal 
stories  that  have  been  perpetuated  by  Italian  art.  If  any 
attempt  should  be  made  to  fill  in  the  picture  it  would  be 
well  to  do  it  in  the  light  of  the  inspired  narrative,  taking 
no  notice  of  silly  legends  and  traditions.  It  was  at  least 
three  days'  journey  and  they  were  no  doubt  three  days 
of  anxiety  for  Joseph  and  Mary  until  they  passed  beyond 
Herod's   jurisdiction.     Nothing  is  known  of  their  ex- 


28    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

periences  while  they  remained  in  Egypt;  but  after  the 
death  of  Herod  the  Great,  by  divine  direction,  they  re- 
turned to  the  land  of  Israel.  When  they  heard  that 
Archelaus  was  reigning  over  Judea  in  the  room  of  his 
father  Herod,  warned  of  God  in  a  dream,  the  parents  of 
Jesus  withdrew  into  the  parts  of  Galilee  and  came  and 
dwelt  in  a  city  called  Nazareth. 

When  Herod  found  that  he  had  been  mocked  by  the 
wise  men,  he  threw  off  the  mask,  and,  in  his  rage,  sent 
forth  and  slew  all  the  male  children  that  were  in  Bethle- 
hem, and  in  all  the  borders  thereof  from  two  years  old 
and  under,  according  to  the  time  that  he  had  inquired  of 
the  wise  men.  By  this  act  he  brought  about  the  fulfillment 
of  a  prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  saying, 

"A  voice  was  heard  in  Ramah, 
Weeping  and  great  mourning, 
Rachel  weeping  for  her  children 
And  she  would  not  be  comforted,  because  they  were  not" 

Not  long  after  this  event,  Herod  died,  and  went  to 
render  his  account  to  the  great  Judge  of  all  the  earth. 
His  whole  career  had  been  marked  with  crime  and  mur- 
der. He  had  murdered  priests  and  nobles;  his  hands 
were  red  with  the  blood  of  his  own  kindred,  including 
his  wif€,  his  children  and  his  brethren;  and,  now,  he 
stands  out  as  the  first  and  fiercest  enemy  of  the  innocent 
Babe  of  Bethlehem.  From  reliable,  secular  historians  we 
learn  that  his  death  furnished  a  fitting  end  to  his  life.  In 
a  luxurious  palace,  in  Jericho,  suffering  intense  pain, 
swollen  with  a  loathsome  disease,  surrounded  by  plotting, 
selfish,  greedy  slaves ;  hating  all,  and  hated  by  all ;  long- 
ing to  die,  and  yet  afraid  to  die,  he  seemed  to  be  suffering 
the  doom  of  the  lost,  even  before  the  spirit  left  the  body. 


THE  INFANCY  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  29 

This  whole  record  shows  how  the  outworking  of  God's 
sovereign  and  revealed  will  includes  the  most  malicious 
acts  of  wicked  men.  They  act  freely,  but  God  makes 
their  wrath  to  praise  him,  and  restrains  the  remainder  of 
wrath,  Herod,  the  enemy  of  God  and  of  his  only  be- 
gotten Son,  is  used  of  God  in  the  outworking  of  his  eternal, 
holy  and  loving  purposes  toward  the  children  of  men. 
How  far  Satan  controls  and  directs  the  acts  of  wicked 
men  in  all  the  ages  no  one  knows,  but  it  is  evident  that 
wicked  men  are  moved  and  controlled  by  the  same  spirit 
in  all  generations.  When  the  ruler  of  Egypt  decreed 
that  all  the  male  children  of  Hebrew  slaves  should  be  put 
to  death,  he  was  moved  by  selfishness,  and  could  plead 
the  Satanic  law  of  self-preservation;  when  Herod  the 
king  sought  the  life  of  the  infant  Jesus,  he  was  moved  by 
the  same  spirit  and  could  plead  the  same  law ;  but  both 
Pharaoh  and  Herod  were  used  to  advance  God's  purposes 
of  love  toward  his  own  people.  Herod  might  rage,  but 
the  little  child  born  in  Bethlehem  was  perfectly  safe  until 
the  fullness  of  time.  The  angels  of  the  Lord  were  en- 
camping round  about  him,  and  God  knew  perfectly  the 
plan  of  every  enemy. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  every  true  disciple  of  Christ, 
whether  weak  or  strong.  God's  angels  guard  his  little 
ones  and  they  have  nothing  to  fear  from  powerful  and 
plotting  enemies.  It  seems  strange  that  Herod  did  not 
recognize  his  impotence;  but,  like  Pharaoh,  he  was 
blind-ed  by  the  hardness  of  an  unbelieving,  selfish  heart, 
and,  going  his  own  way,  "he  went  to  his  own  place." 
Herod  was  a  typical  character.  Every  man  who  lives 
wholly  for  self  is  the  mortal  enemy  of  the  Christ  of  God 
Between  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  the  spirit  of  Herod  there 
is  an  eternal,  irreconcilable  conflict,  a  mortal  antipathy. 
Herod  would  have  others  die  that  he  might  live.    The 


30    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Christ  came  to  die  that  others  might  live.  The  spirit  of 
Herod  is  th€  spirit  of  Satan  and  of  hell.  The  Spirit  of 
Christ  is  the  spirit  of  God  and  of  heaven.  Christ  came 
to  destroy  the  works  of  Satan,  and  Satan  sought  to  de- 
story  the  Christ.  This  was  the  first  attempt,  and  it  failed, 
for  "The  Child  grew  and  waxed  strong,  being  filled  with 
wisdom,  and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon  him." 

If  any  one  should  object  to  this  definite  personification 
of  the  forces  that  make  for  good  and  evil  in  the  world, 
he  can  hardly  deny  that  there  are  such  forces,  either  ab- 
stract or  personal.  If  one  admits  the  existence  of  such 
forces,  it  certainly  is  not  irrational  to  associate  them  with 
persons  especially  when  there  is  scriptural  authority  for 
so  doing. 


Ill 

THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  JESUS  CHRIST 

Luke  2:40.    "And  the  child  grew,  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit, 
filled  with  wisdom;   and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon  him." 
(Luke  2:40-50.) 

CONCERNING  the  childhood  of  Jesus,  after  the 
return  to  Nazareth,  Luke  alone  gives  any  reliable 
information.  In  the  apocryphal  gospels  many 
childish  stories  are  found,  but  none  of  them  have  any 
value  except  that  they  reveal,  by  contrast,  the  matchless 
dignity  and  simplicity  of  the  inspired  gospels.  Writers 
of  these  apocryphal  gospels,  no  doubt,  had  pious  intentions 
when  they  sought  to  fill  out,  by  the  exercise  of  their  im- 
agination, what  appeared  to  be  lacking  in  the  childlife  of 
Jesus,  but  their  acts  were  not  essentially  different  from 
the  act  of  Uzzah  when  he  put  forth  his  hand  to  support 
the  ark  of  God.  These  apocryphal  gospels,  like  semi- 
historical  novels,  pervert  rather  than  teach  real  history. 
In  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  where  so  much  depends  on  the 
actual  truthfulness  of  every  part  of  the  record,  there 
should  be  no  attempt  to  interweave  fact  and  fiction. 

The  evangelist  Luke  reveals  the  religious  character  of 
the  home  of  Jesus  when  he  says,  "And  his  parents  went 
every  year  to  Jerusalem  at  the  feast  of  the  passover." 
Joseph  and  Mary  lived  nearly  one  hundred  miles  from 
Jerusalem,  the  holy  city,  and,  yet,  every  year,  in  order 
to  obey  the  law  of  Moses  (Exodus  23 :  14-17),  they  went 
to  Jerusalem  to  observe  the  passover.    When  one  reads 

31 


32    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

this  simple  statement  of  the  evangelist  and  remembers 
what  a  journey  of  one  hundred  miles  meant  to  these  peo- 
ple, he  may  inhale  the  fragrance  of  genuine  piety  and 
breathe  an  atmosphere  of  religious  faith,  hope  and  love. 

At  the  age  of  twelve  the  Jewish  boy  became  "a.  son  of 
the  law"  and  incurred  his  first  legal  obligation.  Luke  tells 
what  took  place  at  a  passover  when  Jesus  was  twelve  years 
old.  This  particular  passover,  therefore,  marked  a  defi- 
nite epoch  in  Jesus'  life.  There  are  in  the  gospels  no 
exaggerated  accounts  of  such  youthful  exploits  as  may 
be  found  in  the  ordinary  biographies  of  great  men,  but 
the  record  of  this  one  incident  will  help  the  student  to 
rightly  interpret  the  whole  life. 

On  the  way  to  Jersualem  to  attend  religious  feasts,  pil- 
grims traveled  in  companies  composed  of  groups  of 
friends.  When  Jesus  went  up  to  Jerusalem  in  his  twelfth 
year  to  attend  this  passover  he  probably  traveled  with  a 
large  company  of  friends  from  Nazareth  and,  when  in 
Jerusalem,  became  separated  from  his  parents  and  tarried 
behind  when  they  started  on  their  return  to  Nazareth. 
They  did  not  discover  that  he  was  not  with  them  until  they 
had  gone  a  day's  journey  homeward,  when  they  sought 
him  among  their  relatives  and  acquaintances  and  could 
not  find  him.  In  deep  anxiety  they  returned  to  Jerusalem, 
and,  on  the  third  day,  found  him  in  the  temple,  sitting  in 
the  midst  of  the  doctors,  hearing  them  and  asking  them 
questions,  deeply  interested  in  what  was  taking  place 
around  him,  but  forgetful  of  his  parents.  There  is  no 
record  that  Joseph  gave  any  expression  to  either  astonish- 
ment or  anger,  but  the  mother  of  Jesus  said,  "Son,  why 
hast  thou  dealt  thus  with  us?  Behold  thy  father  and  I 
sought  thee  sorrowing  ?"  To  this  Jesus  replied,  "How  is  it 
that  ye  sought  me?  wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  in  my 
Father's  house?"     His  mother  had  said  to  him  "Thy 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  JESUS  CHRIST        33 

father  and  I,"  but,  with  an  entirely  different  meaning,  he 
said,  "My  Father's  house,"  and  the  answer  so  deeply  im- 
pressed his  mother  that  she  kept  all  these  sayings  in  her 
heart. 

What  Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary,  thought  of  the  con- 
versation is  not  revealed,  and  at  this  point  he  drops  out 
of  the  history.  He  probably  died  before  the  beginning  of 
Jesus'  public  ministry. 

This  is  the  only  incident  in  the  first  thirty  years  of 
Jesus'  life  that  is  mentioned  by  any  of  the  evangelists. 
God  usually  keeps  his  servants  away  from  the  public  gaze 
while  he  prepares  them  for  their  life  work.  Moses  dwelt 
in  the  wilderness ;  David  was  amongst  the  sheep  folds ; 
Paul  went  into  Arabia,  and  Jesus  Christ  dwelt  at  Naza- 
reth. Luke's  brief  sketch  of  him  is  sufficient  to  convince 
us  that  Christ's  childhood  at  Nazareth  was  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  the  childhood  suggested  by  the  paintings  of 
Giotto  and  Fra  Angelico,  who  represent  him  and  his 
mother  as  sitting  on  gorgeous  thrones,  environed  by  the 
luxuries  and  splendors  of  an  Oriental  palace.  He  evi- 
dently lived  in  a  very  humble  home  at  Nazareth,  and  his 
associations  were  with  the  poor,  who  earned  their  daily 
bread  by  their  daily  labours.  It  may  be  said  with  confi- 
dence that  his  home  life  was  sweet,  simple,  contented,  in- 
nocent, essentially  beautiful  and  happy.  There  was  an 
atmosphere  of  purity  and  piety  that  would  make  any 
child's  life  beautiful  with  the  beauty  of  holy  love.  Jesus 
Christ  in  his  childhood,  as  we  see  him  in  the  light  of  this 
gospel,  lived,  looked  and  acted  as  other  children,  only 
without  sin. 

His  humanity  was  as  perfect  as  his  divinity.  His 
childhood  was  the  childhood  of  one  who  waxed  strong, 
was  filled  with  wisdom  and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon 
him.    When  a  boy  of  twelve  Jesus  was  thinking  of  his 


34    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

heavenly  Father  and  recognized  a  higher  and  holier  claim 
than  that  which  bound  him  to  his  earthly  parents. 

This  incident  in  the  temple  throws  light  on  a  question 
that  Christian  scholars  have  not  been  able  to  answer  satis- 
factorily; that  is  the  question  as  to  the  relation  of  the 
human  to  the  divine  in  the  Christ.  It  is  evident  from  this 
incident  that  the  human  was  so  related  to  the  divine  that 
there  could  be  growth  or  gradual  apprehension  of  the 
divinity  by  the  humanity.  The  little  child  at  Bethlehem 
was  the  divine  Son  of  God,  but  he  was  also  the  per- 
fect Son  of  man  in  such  a  sense  that  he  could  and  did 
ask  questions  of  human  teachers  at  home  and  in  the 
temple.  He  was  so  essentially  human  that  he  could  grow 
strong  and  be  filled  with  wisdom,  yet  he  knew  at  the  age 
of  twelve,  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God.  The  consciousness 
that  he  was  the  divine  Son  of  God  did  not  come  to  him 
suddenly,  when  he  was  about  thirty  years  old,  or  at  his 
baptism,  but  was  recognized  when  he  dwelt  in  his  home 
at  Nazareth. 


IV 
LIFE  AT  NAZARETH 

Luke  2 :  51-52.  "And  he  went  down  with  them,  and  came  to 
Nazareth  and  was  subject  unto  them:  but  his  mother  kept  all 
these  sayings  in  her  heart.  And  Jesus  increased  in  wisdom  and 
stature,  and  favour  with  God  and  man." 

(Luke  2:  51-52.) 

FROM  the  passover  at  Jerusalem  Jesus  went  to 
Nazareth,  was  subject  to  his  parents  and  advanced 
in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor  with  God  and 
man.  This  statement  contains  all  the  reliable  information 
in  existence  with  reference  to  the  next  eighteen  years 
of  the  life  of  Jesus.  We  can  scarcely  refrain  from  at- 
tempting to  lift  the  veil  and  follow  him  in  our  imagination 
as  he  goes  with  his  parents  from  the  Holy  City  to  the 
little  Nazareth.  He  had  come  in  contact  with,  and  had 
been  influenced  by  some  of  the  great  teachers  who  had 
devoted  their  lives  to  a  study  of  the  sacred  scriptures  of 
the  Hebrews.  He  would  never  be  exactly  what  he  had 
been  before  this  passover  experience.  On  his  home- 
ward journey,  he  probably  passed  Kirjath  Jearim,  and 
would  be  reminded  of  Joshua's  victory  in  the  valley  of 
Ajalon ;  passing  Bethel,  he  would  be  told  of  Jacob's  vis- 
ion; Sychem,  Mount  Carmel  and  the  Valley  of  Jezreel 
would  recall  the  brave  deeds  of  many  servants  of  God 
who  had  lived  and  died  in  past  ages. 

It  is  not  possible  to  lift  the  veil  and  see  any  particular 
incident  in  the  life  of  Jesus  while  he  dwelt  at  Nazareth 
during  the  next  eighteen  years,  for  there  is  not  a  single 

35 


36    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

authentic  anecdote  recorded  anywhere.  Nazareth  was  a 
little  village,  situated  about  midway  in  a  range  of  hills 
stretching  from  the  southern  end  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee 
westward  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  These  hills,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Nazareth,  rise  to  the  height  of  about  five 
hundred  feet,  and  from  their  summit  there  is  a  good  view 
of  the  Valley  of  Jezreel  as  it  stretches  southward,  while, 
looking  westward,  one  may  see  the  waters  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. There  are  no  remains  of  the  ancient  Nazareth 
that  can  now  be  identified.  Dr.  Thompson,  in  "The  Land 
and  the  Book,"  says,  "It  is  nearly  certain  that  every  stone 
of  the  small  hamlet  where  the  Saviour  of  the  world  spent 
so  many  years  has  long  ago  crumbled  to  dust  and  mingled 
with  the  soil  of  the  hills  from  which  it  was  originally 
quarried.  The  rock  disintegrates  with  great  rapidity  and, 
as  the  place  was  often  almost  or  quite  destroyed  and  for- 
saken, the  soft  stones  thus  exposed  would  soon  disap- 
pear." He  adds,  "I  feel  assured  that  the  Church  of  the 
Annunciation,  the  cave,  the  kitchen  of  Mary,  the  work- 
shop of  Joseph,  the  dining  table  of  our  Lord  and  his 
Apostles,  the  Synagogue  where  he  read  the  prophet 
Isaiah,  and  the  precipice  down  which  the  enraged  villagers 
were  determined  to  cast  him  headlong,  as  now  shown  to 
the  pilgrim  and  the  tourist,  are  all  apocryphal  and  have 
no  claim  to  veneration  or  even  respect.  The  eye  rests  on 
nothing  with  which  our  Lord  was  familiar,  except  the 
natural  features  of  the  place  and  the  surrounding  hills." 
There  might  be  some  inspiration  for  the  Christian 
tourist  in  the  thought  that  he  was  really  drinking  from 
the  same  fountain  from  which  Jesus  drank  many  times. 
It  might  strengthen  our  faith  and  sweeten  our  communion 
with  him  if  we  could  climb  to  the  summits  of  the  hills  of 
Nazareth,  and  breathe  the  pure,  cool  air,  while  looking 
over  hills  and  valkys  to  the  distant  sea,  as  no  doubt  he 


LIFE  AT  NAZARETH  37 

often  did.  However,  the  same  sun,  moon  and  stars  that 
he  saw  day  and  night  during  all  the  years  of  his  mortal 
life  may  be  seen  now,  and  any  one  may  have  direct  com- 
munion with  him  in  his  own  home  without  making  a  pil- 
grimage to  Nazareth. 

Mark  does  not  give  any  sketch  of  the  life  of  Jesus  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  his  public  ministry,  but  he  does  tell 
of  a  visit  Jesus  made  to  his  own  country  during  his  public 
ministry,  and  says  that,  during  this  visit,  the  people  of 
Nazareth  were  astonished  by  his  miracles  and  by  his 
teachings  in  the  synagogue,  and  that  they  said  one  to  an- 
other, "Is  not  this  the  carpenter?"  It  was  a  question  that 
needed  no  answer.  They  had  known  Jesus  as  the  carpen- 
ter, the  son  of  Mary.  His  life  amongst  them  had  not  led 
them  to  believe  that  he  was  more  than  the  carpenter.  This 
question,  asked  at  Nazareth  after  Jesus  had  entered  upon 
his  public  ministry,  puts  the  stamp  of  condemnation  on  all 
the  apocryphal  stories  concerning  the  miracles  of  his  boy- 
hood and  youth.  They  knew  him  as  a  carpenter  and  the 
son  of  a  carpenter. 

What  a  world  of  meaning  is  contained  in  that  one  ques- 
tion, "Is  not  this  th-e  carpenter  ?"  During  his  public  minis- 
try Jesus  went  everywhere  preaching  the  Kingdom  and 
he  associated  with  the  humble  and  the  poor  of  this  world. 
He  could  say  of  himself,  "The  foxes  have  holes,  the  birds 
of  the  air  have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where 
to  lay  his  head."  He  was  identified  with  the  common 
people ;  but,  if  we  were  to  look  for  his  highest  and  most 
convincing  testimony  to  the  dignity  of  honest,  faithful 
labour,  we  would  find  it  in  the  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  was 
known  as  a  carpenter.  There  has  always  been  a  tendency 
to  r€gard  honest  toil,  and  especially  manual  labour,  as  de- 
grading. There  is  an  insiduous  and  quite  prevalent  de- 
lusion that  it  is  a  nobler  thing  for  a  man  to  live  without 


38    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

working  than  it  is  for  a  man  to  be  a  laborer;  that  the 
man  or  woman  who  controls  and  consumes  a  great  deal 
is  superior  to  the  man  or  woman  who  earns  or  produces 
what  others  control  and  consume.  On  this  delusion  God 
placed  the  stamp  of  infinite  and  eternal  condemnation 
when  he  sent  his  Son  to  be  a  carpenter.  Had  Jesus  lived 
in  ease,  idleness  and  luxury  until  he  entered  on  his  public 
ministry,  he  could  never  have  come  so  near  to  the  millions 
of  weary  toilers  who  constitute  a  large  part  of  mankind  in 
every  generation.  The  home  of  Jesus  at  Nazareth  was 
such  a  home  as  is  possible  for  ordinary  men  and  women. 
It  was  not  beautified  and  adorned  by  costly  furnishings ; 
its  table  was  not  spread  with  luxuries  that  are  possible 
only  to  the  rich.  In  that  home  of  the  carpenter  there  was 
reverence  for  parents;  there  was  gentleness,  kindness, 
purity,  industry,  contentment ;  in  the  heart  of  Jesus,  as 
he  dwelt  in  that  home,  there  was  no  covetousness  nor 
greed  of  gain,  no  vaulting  ambition,  no  envy  nor  jealousy, 
no  hatred  nor  malice ;  there  was  perfect  love  Godward 
and  manward.  God's  home  is  with  the  humble.  His  Son 
dwelt  in  a  humble  home  in  Nazareth,  and  the  Comforter, 
eternal  Love,  is  to  be  found  now  in  the  humblest  homes 
more  frequently  than  in  the  abodes  of  luxury. 

Jesus  did  not  have  what  the  Jews  called  a  liberal  educa- 
tion. If  he  had  attended  a  theological  seminary  or  school 
of  the  prophets ;  or,  if  he  had  been  brought  up  at  the  feet 
of  a  great  teacher  like  Gamaliel  or  Shammai,  there  would 
have  been  no  room  for  the  question,  "How  knoweth  this 
man  letters  having  never  learned?"  The  whole  story  of 
his  education  is  told  by  Luke  when  he  says  that  he  was 
subject  to  his  parents,  and  that  he  advanced  in  wisdom,  in 
stature,  and  in  favour  with  God  and  man. 

There  is  a  flood  of  light  in  the  statement  that  Jesus  was 
subject  to  his  parents  after  his  experience  at  Jerusalem. 


LIFE  OF  NAZARETH  39 

He  had  said  to  his  mother  in  the  temple,  "Wist  ye  not 
that  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  house?"  H-e  had  recog- 
nized his  high  nature  and  great  mission,  yet  for  eighteen 
years  he  dwelt  and  wrought  in  the  little,  humble  home  at 
Nazareth,  being  subject  to  his  parents.  It  required  these 
eighteen  years  to  prepare  his  humanity  for  his  great  mis- 
sion as  the  divine  Son  of  God.  In  his  perfect  manhood 
he  needed  to  cultivate  patience,  humility  and  meekness 
during  these  years,  that  he  might  be  able  to  say,  "Learn 
of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart !" 

When  Moses  was  raised  up  to  be  the  deliverer  of  God's 
people  he  seemed  and  felt  ready  for  his  work  at  the  age 
of  forty,  but  God  spent  forty  more  years  in  changing  the 
rash,  impetuous  Moses  into  the  meek,  long-suffering 
Moses  by  keeping  him  a  shepherd  in  the  wilderness. 
Jesus,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  reconized  his  mission  as  the 
Son  of  God  and  Son  of  man,  but  the  heavenly  Father  left 
him  for  eighteen  years  in  the  home  at  Nazareth,  subject 
to  his  parents,  that  he  might  grow  in  wisdom,  in  stature 
and  in  favour  with  God  and  men.  It  was  eighteen  years 
of  preparation  for  three  years'  work.  This  was  God's 
way. 

These  years  spent  in  the  home  of  Joseph  and  Mary  were 
spent  also  in  communion  with  the  heavenly  Father. 
When  he  went  from  his  Father's  house  in  Jerusalem  to 
resume  the  home  life  at  Nazareth  he  did  not  leave  his 
heavenly  Father  at  Jerusalem.  It  was  his  custom  to  wor- 
ship in  the  synagogue  and  he  communed  with  God  in  the 
silence  and  solitude  at  Nazareth,  forming  there  the  habit 
that  afterwards  led  him  to  spend  whole  nights  in  prayer. 
The  inspired  writers  are  silent  concerning  these  eighteen 
years  of  our  Lord's  life,  but  their  silence  is  eloquent  and 
luminous,  leaving  each  one  to  fill  out  the  picture  for  him- 
self. 


V 

JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 

Luke  1 :  80.    "And  the  child  grew,  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit, 
and  was  in  the  desert  till  the  day  of  his  showing  unto  Israel." 
(Mat.3:i-i2;    Marki:i-8;   Luke3:i-i8;   John  i :  15-31.) 

WHILE  Jesus  grew  to  manhood  and  was  prepared 
for  his  Messianic  work  at  Nazareth,  another 
child,  the  son  of  Zacharias,  grew  to  manhood 
in  the  desert  and  was  discipHned  for  the  great  work  that 
he  was  to  do  as  the  herald  and  forerunner  of  the  Christ. 
John  was  six  months  older  than  Jesus,  and,  in  view  of  the 
sacred  and  profound  sympathy  that  united  Mary  and  Eliz- 
abeth, it  might  be  expected  that  the  two  youths  would 
know  a  great  deal  of  each  other.  On  this  point  there  is  no 
reliable  information.  If  the  inspired  historians  have  but 
little  to  say  of  the  boyhood  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  have  still 
less  to  say  of  the  boyhood  of  John  the  Baptist.  Of  the  four 
evangelists,  only  Luke  gives  any  information,  and  he  con- 
denses the  whole  history  of  thirty  years  into  a  single 
sentence,  as  he  says,  "The  child  grew,  and  waxed  strong 
in  spirit,  and  was  in  the  desert  until  the  day  of  his  showing 
unto  Israel."  The  same  evangelist  had  recorded  the 
words  of  the  angel  to  Zacharias  at  the  time  when  he  re- 
vealed to  him  that  he  should  have  a  son  and  added  "Thou 

shalt  call  his  name  John and  he  shall  drink  no  wine 

nor  strong  drink  and  he  shall  be  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  even  from  his  mother's  womb." 

40 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  41 

This  is  the  whole  record  of  the  early  life  of  John,  and 
it  suggests  that  while  there  was  a  strong  bond  of  union 
between  the  mother  of  Jesus  and  the  mother  of  John,  and, 
though  John  was  to  be  the  last  and  greatest  herald  of  the 
Christ,  the  two  were  not  intimately  associated  in  their 
youth  and  early  manhood.  John  probably  did  not  know 
Jesus  as  the  promised  Messiah.  Zacharias  had  been  told 
that  his  son  should  go  in  the  spirit  of  Elijah,  that  he 
should  turn  the  hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children  and 
prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord ;  the  mother  of  John,  when 
filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  had  said  to  Mary,  the  mother 
of  Jesus,  "Blessed  art  thou  among  women,  and  blessed  is 
the  fruit  of  thy  womb,  whence  is  this  to  me  that  the 
mother  of  my  Lord  should  come  unto  me?"  The 
parents  of  John  would  not  fail  to  tell  him  of  the  vision 
preceding  his  birth,  and  he  would  be  impressed  with  the 
thought  that  he  was  to  be  the  herald  that  should  prepare 
the  way  for  the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  He  knew  that 
he  was  to  be  "the  prophet  of  the  Most  High,"  and  that 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  his  kinsman,  was  greater  than  he. 
This  is  the  probable  explanation  of  the  fact  afterwards 
recorded  that  John  received  a  sign  from  heaven  by  which 
he  recognized  Jesus  as  the  Christ.  He  knew  him  as 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  his  kinsman,  but  he  probably  did  not 
know  him  as  the  Christ  of  God,  and  the  Saviour  of  the 
world. 

The  thirty  years  spent  in  preparing  Jesus  and  his  fore- 
runner for  their  life-work  were  eventful  years  in  Jewish 
history.  The  kingdom,  that  had  been  united  under  Herod 
the  Great,  was  dismembered  after  his  death,  Archelaus 
becoming  tetrarch  of  Judea.  Herod  Antipas  tetrarch  of 
Galilee  and  Perea,  and  Philip  tetrarch  of  Trachonitas, 
Gaulonitas,  Batanea  and  Paneas.  Archelaus  was  after- 
wards deposed,  and  his  dominions  passed  under  the  di- 


42    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

rect  power  of  Rome,  being  annexed  to  Syria  and  gov- 
erned by  a  procurator.  The  office  of  high  priest  had  be- 
come political  rather  than  religious.  Josephus  says  that 
there  were  twenty-eight  high  priests  from  the  time  of 
Herod  until  the  burning  of  the  temple. 

As  the  outcome  of  all  these  changes,  Pontius  Pilate 
was  procurator  of  Judea,  while  Annas,  and  Caiaphas,  his 
son-in-law,  were  high  priests  when  John  the  Baptist 
entered  upon  his  mission  as  the  herald  of  the  Christ.  It 
was  "the  fullness  of  time,"  even  as  it  had  been  in  the 
days  of  Noah  and  of  Lot.  The  cup  of  iniquity  was  full 
to  overflowing.  Truth,  purity,  piety  and  righteousness 
seemed  about  to  sink  and  perish  in  a  deluge  of  atheism 
and  sensuality.  Th^e  Roman  government  was  godless, 
cruel  and  corrupt.  Might  was  the  only  clearly  recog- 
nized right.  The  Jewish  people,  with  rare  exceptions, 
were  formalists  and  sensualists.  Pharisaic  pride  and 
Sadducean  sensuality  were  in  possession  of  the  high 
places.  The  time  seemed  to  have  come  when  God  must 
either  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse  or  send  the  promised 
Elijah.  There  was  need  of  one  with  the  stern  courage 
of  the  old  prophet  who  faced  and  conquered  the  prophets 
of  Baal  and  Ashtoreth  on  Mount  Carmel. 

John,  the  son  of  Zacharias,  \vas  the  man  whom  God 
had  raised  up  and  equipped  for  this  great  and  hard 
work.  He  had  been  trained  as  an  ascetic ;  he  could  en- 
dure hardships  without  complaining;  he  could  come 
down  from  the  higher  to  a  lower  place  without  envying, 
and  could  face  danger  without  fear.  In  fulfillment  of 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  he  appeared  suddenly  as  a  crier 
in  the  wilderness,  and  his  cry  was, 

"Make  ye  ready  the  way  of  the  Lord 
Make  his  paths  straight." 


JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  43 

John  was  not  clothed  in  soft  raiment,  nor  was  he  a 
reed  shaken  by  every  passing  wind.  With  raiment  of 
camel's  hair,  with  a  leathern  girdle  about  his  loins,  hav- 
ing for  food  locust  and  wild  honey,  his  voice  broke  the 
silence  in  the  wilderness  of  Judea,  as  he  cried,  "Repent 
ye ;  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand."  His  preach- 
ing created  intense  and  wide  spread  interest.  Multitudes 
from  Jerusalem,  Judea  and  all  the  region  round  about  the 
Jordan  same  to  see  and  hear  the  strange,  weird  preacher, 
and  many  were  baptized  of  him,  confessing  their  sins. 
He  discerned  the  times.  He  saw  the  wickedness  that  was 
concealed  under  professions  of  piety,  and,  like  the  Elijah, 
who  had  met  and  challenged  King  Ahab,  he  sternly  re- 
buked the  haughty,  heartless,  hypocritical,  self  righteous 
Pharisees  and  the  sensual  Sadducees  who  came  to  his 
baptism,  saying,  "Ye  offspring  of  vipers,  who  hath 
warned  you  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  ?  Bring  forth 
therefore,  fruit  worthy  of  repentance,  and  think  not  to 
say  within  yourselves,  we  have  Abraham  to  our  father 

even  now  the  axe  is  laid  unto  the  root  of  the 

tree;  every  tree,  therefore,  that  bringeth  not  forth  good 
fruit  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire." 

John  was  as  faithful  to  his  mission  as  he  was  fearless. 
When  the  Jews  sent  priests  and  Levites  to  inquire 
whether  he  were  the  Christ,  he  declared  that  he  was  not. 
He  declared,  too,  that  he  was  not  the  Elijah  of  the  Old 
Testament,  nor  the  promised  prophet,  but  that  he  was 
merely  the  forerunner,  "the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the 
wilderness,"  that  had  been  predicted  by  Isaiah.  He  de- 
clared that  he  was  not  worthy  to  unloose  the  shoe  latchet 
of  the  One  who  should  come  after  him.  He  did  not  for 
a  moment  assume  to  be  the  One  who  should  sit  as  a  re- 
finer and  purifier  of  the  sons  of  Levi  (Mai.  3 : 1-4).  He 
said,  "I  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance,  but  he 


44    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  cometh  after  me shall  baptize  you  with  the 

Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire."     (Matthew  3:  11-12.) 

Had  he  been  vain  or  corruptible,  he  would  have  fallen. 
He  was  recognized  as  a  great  and  popular  preacher.  Men 
were  willing  to  accept  him  at  his  own  valuation.  By 
baptizing  and  introducing  Jesus  he  was  putting  aside  his 
own  opportunities  to  take  the  first  place  His  honours  had 
come  unsought.  Might  he  not  for  a  little  time  enjoy  the 
reputation  of  being  the  promised  Messiah?  He  was  in- 
volving himself  in  trouble  by  denying  that  he  was  the 
Christ;  for  the  Jewish  rulers  were  saying,  "What  au- 
thority do  you  have  for  baptizing  if  you  are  not  the 
Christ?"  To  introduce  the  Christ,  he  knew,  was  to 
eclipse  his  own  light;  but  he  was  faithful,  and  he  de- 
clared that  he  was  only  the  herald  and  the  witness  of  the 
true  Light. 


VI 

THE  BAPTISM  OF  JESUS 

Mark  i :  9.  "And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days  that  Jesus  came 
from  Nazareth  and  was  baptized  of  John  in  the  Jordan." 

(Mat.  3:  13-17;    Mark  1:9-11;   hnke  3:  21-22;   John  i :  32-34.) 

THE  fame  of  John  the  Baptist  had  reached  its  ze- 
nith. The  Jordan,  where  he  was  preaching  had 
become  a  greater  center  of  rehgious  interest  and 
attraction  than  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  where  robed 
priests,  with  splendid  ritual,  offered  daily  sacrifices.  The 
great  preacher,  with  the  tremendous  emphasis  of  accumu- 
lated zeal,  warned  all  sinners  of  every  class  to  repent.  He 
demanded  justice,  purity  and  mercy.  He  fearlessly  re- 
buked rulers  and  priests  as  well  as  the  common  people. 
There  was  no  effort  to  conceal  unwelcome  truth  by 
smooth  speech,  and  there  was  no  attempt  to  flatter  any 
man  whether  rich  or  poor.  To  the  inquiring  soldiers,  who 
came  to  him,  he  said,  "Do  no  violence,  neither  exact  any- 
thing wrongfully" ;  to  the  tax  gatherers,  he  said,  "Extort 
no  more  than  is  appointed  you ;  to  those  who  had  more 
worldly  goods  than  they  needed,  he  said,  "Impart  to  him 
that  hath  none" ;  and  to  Herod,  who  had  married  his 
brother's  wife  while  his  brother  was  yet  living,  he  said, 
"It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  have  her." 

There  is  something  in  every  man  that  compels  him  to 
respect  the  fearless,  earnest  preacher  of  righteousness, 
John  was  such  a  preacher,  and  by  his  preaching  had  en- 
listed the  sympathy  of  those  who  heard  him,  so  that  he 

45 


46    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

stood  preeminent  and  secure  as  a  religious  teacher  when 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  appeared  and  asked  to  be  baptized. 

The  incidents  connected  with  the  baptism  of  Jesus  in- 
dicate that  John  knew  him  as  Jesus,  his  relative.  When 
the  request  for  baptism  was  first  made  he  said,  "I  have 
need  to  be  baptized  of  thee,  and  comest  thou  to  me?" 
Jesus  overruled  his  objection  by  saying,  "Suffer  it  to  be 
so  now,  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to  fulfill  all  righteous- 
ness." When  Jesus  was  baptized  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the 
form  of  a  dove,  descended  from  heaven  and  rested  upon 
him,  and  there  came  a  voice  from  heaven  saying,  "Thou 
are  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 

This  was  the  sign  that  had  been  given  to  John  by  which 
he  should  recognize  the  Christ,  for  he  says,  "I  knew  him 
not  but  he  that  sent  me  to  baptize  with  water,  he  said 
unto  me,  upon  whomsoever  thou  shalt  see  the  Spirit  de- 
scending and  abiding,  the  same  is  he  that  baptizeth  with 
the  Holy  Spirit.  And  I  have  seen  and  borne  witness  that 
this  is  the  Son  of  God." 

John's  baptism  was  ordinarily  a  baptism  unto  repent- 
ance and  a  badge  of  discipleship.  His  baptizing  of  Jesus 
was  a  unique  event.  Luke  tells  us  that  it  took  place  when 
all  the  people  were  baptized  and  that  Jesus  was  praying 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  descended  upon  him  and  a  voice 
came  from  heaven.  It  was  a  formal  consecration  to  his 
great  work  as  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  man. 
John's  preaching  and  teaching  in  the  wilderness  were 
undertaken  and  maintained  in  order  that  they  might  lead 
up  to  this  event,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  might  be  mani- 
fested to  Israel  as  the  Messiah. 

This  event  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  re- 
demption. John  the  Baptist  had  faithfully  performed  his 
mission  as  the  herald  of  the  Christ,  and  he  can  now  de- 
crease that  another  may  increase.    H€  has  introduced  his 


THE  BAPTISM  OF  JESUS  47 

Lord,  and  can  retire  from  the  high  place  he  has  held 
as  a  preacher  of  righteousness  and  a  prophet  of  God ; 
henceforth  he  can  rebuke  sin  and  bring  upon  himself  the 
wrath  of  sinners,  but  his  great  mission  has  been  accom- 
plished. 

As  we  trace  the  life  of  Jesus  we  shall  again  have  oc- 
casion to  speak  of  John,  but  this  seems  a  fitting  time  to 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  last  days  of  this  faithful  servant  of 
God. 

Some  time  after  this,  John  was  arrested  by  Herod  An- 
tipas,  and  was  imprisoned  at  Machaeris,  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  th-e  Dead  Sea.  His  arrest  was  probably  at  the 
instigation  of  Herodias,  and  it  is  probable  that  John 
would  have  been  murdered  forthwith  if  Herod  had  not 
feared  the  people  who  regarded  John  as  a  prophet.  Her- 
od would  never  have  killed  John  if  he  had  been  left  to 
himself,  for  there  was  something  in  John's  character  and 
preaching  that  aroused  Herod's  conscience.  But,  like 
King  Ahab,  with  whom  the  Elijah  of  the  Old  Testament 
came  in  conflict,  Herod  was  allied  with  a  notoriously 
wicked  woman.  It  usually  requires  the  combined  effort 
of  a  good  man  and  a  good  woman  to  do  the  greatest  and 
best  things;  and  it  is  true  also  that  the  worst  acts  that 
blacken  the  pages  of  human  history  have  been  the  acts  of 
weak,  cowardly,  bad  men,  controlled  by  strong,  con- 
scienceless, wicked  women.  A  man  and  a  woman  can  be 
more  cruel  and  more  desperately  wicked  than  either  a 
man  or  woman  seems  capable  of  being  when  acting  alone. 

John  the  Baptist,  by  his  righteous  rebuke  of  Herod's 
sin,  had  incurred  the  deadly  enmity  of  a  wicked  woman, 
and  God  permitted  her  to  have  her  revenge.  John's  work 
on  earth  was  done,  and  his  rest  and  reward  were  pre- 
pared by  the  heavenly  Father,  and  this  woman  had  her 
revenge ;  but,  in  letters  of  eternal  infamy,  by  the  side  of 
Jezebel,  she  wrote  the  name  Herodias. 


yii 

THE  TEMPTATION 

Matthew  4:  i.  "Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into  the 
wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil." 

(Mat.  4:1-11;   Mark  1:12-13;   Luke  4:  1-13.) 

GOD'S  first  promise  to  sinful  man  proclaimed  en- 
mity between  the  seed  of  the  serpent  and  the  seed 
of  the  woman.  In  Eden  Satan  enslaved  the  first 
Adam,  laying  the  foundation  for  his  own  kingdom  in  the 
spirit  of  unbelief,  disobedience  and  enmity  against  God 
that  he  injected  into  the  parents  of  mankind.  Jesus  came 
as  the  second  Adam  to  bruise  the  serpent's  head,  to  destroy 
the  power  of  Satan,  to  cast  out  the  usurping  prince  of  this 
world  and  to  overthrow  his  kingdom.  Jesus'  whole  life 
was  preeminently  a  conflict  with  the  prince  of  this  world, 
and  this  conflict  is  most  clearly  revealed  in  the  inspired 
history  of  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  his  public  min- 
istry. At  the  beginning  of  his  life  work,  he  successfully 
resisted  Satan,  and,  at  its  close,  he  said,  "Now  shall  the 
prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out,  and  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  myself." 

Three  evangelists,  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  give  ac- 
counts of  Jesus'  being  led  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempt- 
ed of  the  devil,  and  they  all  represent  the  event  as  oc- 
curring immediately  after  his  baptism.  After  telling  of 
his  baptism  Matthew  says,  "Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of 
the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil"; 

48 


THE  TEMPTATION  49 

Mark  says,  "and  straightway  the  Spirit  driveth  him  forth 
into  the  wilderness,  and  he  was  in  the  wilderness  forty 
days,  tempted  of  Satan";  and  Luke  writes,  "Jesus,  full 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  returned  from  the  Jordan,  and  was 
led  by  the  Spirit  in  the  wilderness  during  forty  days, 
being  tempted  of  the  devil."  No  intelligent,  honest  stu- 
dent and  believer  of  these  Scriptures  can  doubt  that  Jesus 
Christ  met  a  personal  evil  spirit  called  Satan  or  the  devil 
in  his  temptation  in  the  wilderness.  His  temptation  did 
not  come  from  suggestions  of  human  enemies,  nor  did 
it  spring  up  in  his  own  pure  mind.  Like  the  temptation 
in  Eden,  it  came  from  without,  from  Satan. 

The  sketch  given  by  Mark  is  very  brief.  He  only  says 
that  Jesus  was  in  the  wilderness  forty  days,  that  he  was 
with  the  wild  beasts,  and  that  the  angels  ministered  unto 
him.  The  accounts  of  the  temptation  given  by  Matthew 
and  Luke  differ  in  the  order  of  the  second  and  third 
temptations,  and  it  is  most  probable  that  Matthew  gives 
them  in  the  order  in  which  they  actually  occurred.  Com- 
bining the  three  accounts,  it  is  evident  that  the  temptations 
were  preceded  by  forty  days  and  nights  of  fasting,  during 
which  time  Jesus  took  no  food  and  after  which  he  hun- 
gered. 

On  Mount  Sinai  Moses  neither  ate  bread  nor  drank 
water  for  forty  days  (Ex.  34:  28),  Elijah,  on  his  way  to 
Horeb,  went  forty  days  and  forty  nights  without  eating 
or  drinking  (i  Kings  19:  8),  and  Jesus  fasted  forty  days 
in  the  wilderness. 

Tradition  has  fixed  the  scene  of  the  temptation  at  a 
mountain  near  Jericho,  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether 
he  spent  the  entire  forty  days  preceding  the  temptation  in 
one  place.  The  essential,  revealed  facts  are  that  he  was 
led,  or  driven  by  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness,  and  that 
he  was  hungry  when  the  tempter  came. 


50    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Nothing  is  added  to  the  essential  reahty  of  the  tempta- 
tion by  assuming  that  there  was  any  visible,  tangible  pres- 
ence of  the  evil  one.  The  source  of  information  in  re- 
gard to  this  event  is  Jesus  himself,  or  the  Spirit  of  in- 
spiration, and  his  recognition  of  the  presence  of  the 
prince  of  this  world  was  never  dependent  on  any  external 
or  material  manifestation. 

The  first  temptation  appealed  to  his  human  hunger, 
but  suggested  an  interest  in  his  claim  to  be  divine.  The 
tempter  said,  "H  thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  command  that 
these  stones  become  bread."  This  was  a  very  subtle 
temptation,  God  had  fed  the  hungry  Israelites  in  the 
wilderness;  he  had  sent  the  raven  to  the  prophet  Elijah, 
and  why  should  not  the  Son  of  God  satisfy  his  human 
hunger  by  an  exercise  of  his  divine  power?  Why  should 
he  not  command  these  stones  to  become  bread  and  remove 
the  words,  "If  thou  art  the  Son  of  God,"  from  the 
tempter's  suggestion? 

Only  the  purest  and  most  profound  spiritual  insight 
could  have  seen  any  evil  in  this  insiduous  temptation. 
It  seemed  to  be  only  a  call  to  Christ's  perfect  divinity  to 
minister  to  the  necessity  of  his  perfect  humanity  Only 
in  the  light  of  his  own  answer  and  subsequent  history  can 
any  one  confidently  affirm  that  it  would  have  been  wrong 
for  Jesus  to  have  used  his  divine  power  to  change  those 
stones  to  bread.  Nevertheless,  it  would  have  taken  some- 
thing from  his  perfect  manhood;  it  would  have  left  him 
incapable  of  being  "tempted  in  all  points  as  we  are,  yet, 
without  sin" ;  it  would  have  marred  his  perfection  as  our 
merciful  and  faithful  high  priest,  and  would  have  en- 
couraged men  to  make  the  higher  and  the  spiritual  the 
servant  of  the  lower  and  the  sensual.  He  had  become  a 
real  man  by  taking  a  true  body  and  reasonable  soul  in 
order  to  redeem  men,  and  he  could  not  use  his  divine 


THE  TEMPTATION  51 

power  in  the  support  of  his  humanity.  To  have  done  so 
would  have  involved  the  giving  up  of  his  great  mission. 
Instead  of  doing  so,  he  met  the  tempter's  suggestion  by 
saying,  "It  is  written,  man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God."  In  the  light  of  this  answer  one  may  see  that  men 
are  not  to  set  aside  divine  law  in  order  to  satisfy  sensual 
needs.  His  actions  and  words  were  in  most  striking  con- 
trast with  the  words  and  acts  of  tired,  hungry,  reckless 
Esau,  who,  for  one  mess  of  meat,  sold  his  birthright. 
Though  he  had  divine  power,  he  humbled  himself  and 
suffered  hunger  with  the  children  of  God  until  God's 
time  should  come  and  he  would  relieve  that  hunger  (Deut. 

8:3). 

The  first  temptation  having  failed,  Satan  took  Jesus 
from  the  desert  to  the  holy  city,  Jerusalem,  and  set  him 
on  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple,  saying,  "If  thou  art  the  Son 
of  God,  cast  thyself  down ;  for  it  is  written, 

"He  shall  give  his  angels  charge  concerning  thee, 
And  on  their  hands  shall  they  bear  thee  up 
Lest  haply  thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone." 

Avoiding  all  curious  and  unprofitable  inquiries  as  to 
whether  there  was  a  real  transfer  of  Jesus'  material  body 
from  the  wilderness  to  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  we  see 
Jesus  on  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple  at  a  giddy  height,  tempt- 
ed with  the  suggestion  that  he  cast  himself  down.  The 
temptation  seemed  to  be  addressed  to  spiritual  pride,  or 
spiritual  vanity — to  that  in  man  which  would  lead  him 
to  use  his  spiritual  power  for  selfish  gratification.  The 
subtlety  of  this  temptation  is  evident  when  one  considers 
Jesus'  answer  to  the  first  temptation.  In  that  answer 
Jesus  had  declared  that  perfect  obedience  and  perfect 
trust  in  God  were  essential  to  real  life.    The  tempter  now 


52    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

appeals  to  this  trust  in  God's  word,  saying,  "Cast  thyself 
down,  for  it  is  written  that  his  angels  will  bear  thee  up." 

This  temptation  had  an  odor  of  sanctity.  It  seamed 
like  an  opportunity  to  prove  God's  faithfulness  to  his 
promises,  as  well  as  an  opportunity  to  exhibit  great 
faith  and  unlimited  trust.  Many  good  men  have  fallen 
before  such  temptations.  They  failed  to  see  the  essential 
distinction  between  humble,  obedient  faith,  that  trusts 
God  in  the  darkest  hour,  and  spiritual  pride  that  would 
rush  into  danger  and  temptation  in  order  to  test  God's 
faithfulness  and  gain  a  reputation  for  extraordinary  sanc- 
tity. Extremes  often  meet.  Humility  and  spiritual  pride 
may  appear  in  the  same  garb.  Through  the  holes  in  the 
rags,  donned  by  spurious  humility,  pride  very  frequently 
shows  itself. 

This  temptation  was  a  real  and  crucial  test  of  Christ's 
claim  to  live  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God.  The  tempter  said,  "It  is  written,"  but 
Jesus  answered,  "Again  it  is  written,  thou  shalt  not  tempt 
the  Lord  thy  God."  The  Scripture  quoted  by  the  tempter 
was  true,  but  it  was  misapplied,  and,  by  other  Scriptures. 
Jesus  exposed  the  misapplication.  Had  Jesus  been  seek- 
ing his  own  glory,  as  a  man,  when  he  chose  to  suffer 
hunger  rather  than  command  stones  to  become  bread,  he 
would  have  fallen  before  this  second  temptation  that  ap- 
pealed to  spiritual  pride.  In  his  perfect  manhood  Jesus 
took  the  form  of  a  servant  combining  perfect  obedience 
with  humble,  absolute  trust.  He  did  not  need  to  test 
God's  promises  and  would  not  tempt  God. 

Humility  and  spiritual  pride  are  essentially  different. 
Humility  would  go  God's  way ;  but  spiritual  pride  would 
have  God  go  our  way.  During  the  dark  days  of  our 
Civil  War  a  man  said  to  President  Lincoln,  "I  hope  the 
Lord  is  on  our  side."    Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  "I  am  not  so 


THE  TEMPTATION  S3 

much  concerned  about  that  as  I  am  about  something  else." 
When  the  man  asked  what  else  could  be  so  important, 
Mr.  Lincoln  answered,  "I  hope  we  are  on  the  Lord's 
side."    There  is  a  difference  as  well  as  a  distinction. 

In  the  first  two  temptations  the  tempter  was  disguised 
as  a  pious  friend,  giving  kindly  and  helpful  advice.  But 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit  has  revealed  his  real  character, 
and  now  he  throws  off  the  mask  and  makes  an  appeal  to 
human  ambition.  Taking  Jesus  up  into  "an  exceeding 
high  mountain,"  and  showing  him  all  the  kingdoms  of 
the  world  and  all  their  glory  in  a  moment  of  time,  he  said, 
"All  these  things  will  I  give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down 
and  worship  me." 

With  the  natural  eye  Jesus  could  not  have  seen  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world  and  all  their  glory  from  any 
mountain  on  the  globe.  The  appeal  was  made  to  human 
ambition,  and  before  his  clear  mind  were  placed  all  the 
pomp  and  power  of  world-wide  authority.  If  he  would 
become  the  servant  of  the  world  and  worship  the  prince  of 
this  world,  he  could  have  the  world's  highest  place.  The 
tempter  boldly  claimed  all  authority  in  this  world  and  the 
power  to  dispose  of  it  as  he  would.  He  said,  "it  hath  been 
delivered  unto  me,  and  to  whomsoever  I  will  I  give  it." 
Jesus  did  not  dispute  this  claim  ,but,  with  infinite  scorn, 
he  rejected  the  offer,  saying,  "Get  thee  hence,  Satan; 
for  it  is  written.  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God, 
and  him  only  shalt  thou  serve."  In  this  answer  Jesus  pro- 
claims the  prince  of  this  world  a  usurper  whom  he  will 
not  accept  as  his  sovereign.  There  can  be  no  compromise, 
and  the  one  or  the  other  must  be  destroyed.  This  was 
the  beginning,  and  a  miniature  type  of  that  contest  that 
reached  its  climax  on  Calvary.  The  temptation  was  a 
temptation  to  live  a  life  of  selfish  ambition,  but  Jesus 
Christ  chose  the  life  of  self-sacrificing  devotion  to  God 


54    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

in  the  saving  of  men.    There  can  henceforth  be  no  mis- 
understanding, but  there  will  be  mortal  conflict. 

The  inspired  records  of  the  temptation  of  Jesus  sug- 
gest many  questions  that  cannot  be  definitely  answered, 
but  they  also  teach  us  very  clearly  two  or  three  great 
lessons.  First  of  all  they  teach  that  Jesus  Christ  lived 
his  life  here  as  a  real  and  perfect  man,  and  that  he  met 
temptation  as  a  man.  Second,  they  teach  just  as  clearly 
that  he  had  to  contend,  not  only  with  wicked  men,  but 
with  a  personal  spirit  of  evil,  who  claimed  authority 
over  this  world,  and  was  recognized  as  the  prince  of  this 
world.  Third,  they  showed  that  he  gained  his  victory, 
not  by  taking  refuge  in  his  essential  divinity,  but  by  using 
the  Word  of  God  as  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.  When  he 
had  met  and  resisted  temptation,  when  he  had  conquered 
sensual  desire,  spiritual  pride,  and  selfish  ambition,  by 
using  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  angels  came  and  ministered 
unto  him. 


VIII 
CHRIST'S  FIRST  DISCIPLE 

John  1 :  38.    "What  seek  ye  ?" 
(John  1:35-51-) 

THE  first  three  gospel  narratives  contain  no  record 
of  Jesus'  movements  during  the  time  that  inter- 
vened between  his  temptation  and  his  return  to 
Galilee.  Matthew  and  Mark  follow  their  accounts  of  the 
temptation  by  saying,  "after  John  the  Baptist  had  been 
imprisoned,  Jesus  returned  to  Galilee."  John  gives  a 
full,  consecutive  and  very  interesting  sketch  of  Jesus' 
return  from  the  wilderness  to  Bethany,  where  John  was 
teaching  and  baptizing,  and  of  his  choosing  his  first  five 
disciples.  He  specifies  what  occured  on  four  consecutive 
days.  The  first  of  these  four  days  was  probably  the  day 
of  Jesus'  return  from  the  wilderness.  That  was  a  great 
day  in  the  history  of  John  the  Baptist  and  marked  the 
beginning  of  the  decline  of  his  faithful  ministry.  A  depu- 
tation of  priests  and  Levites  from  the  sanhedrin  at  Je- 
rusalem had  come  to  interview  him,  and  to  bring  back  a 
report  concerning  him.  They  were  the  chosen  repre- 
sentatives of  the  highest  Jewish  ecclesiastical  court ;  and, 
if  they  had  been  favourably  impressed,  John  might  have 
been  invited  to  Jerusalem.  Had  he  been  seeking  his  own 
glory,  the  coming  of  this  influential  committee  would 
have  afforded  a  rare  opportunity  to  make  a  favourable  im- 
pression, but  he  did  not  discard  his  coarse  cloak  and  his 
leathern  girdle,  and  his  answers  to  their  questions  did  not 

55 


56    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

seem  to  worldly  wisdom  either  tactful  or  diplomatic. 
When  they  said,  "Who  art  thou?"  he  confessed  that  he 
was  not  the  Christ,  that  he  was  not  Elijah,  and  that  he 
was  not  the  looked  for  prophet.  When  they  inquired 
still  farther,  saying  that  they  wished  to  give  an  answer 
to  those  who  had  sent  them,  he  replied,  "I  am  the  voice  of 
one  crying  in  the  wilderness.  Make  straight  the  way  of 
the  Lord."  When  they  asked  why  he  baptized  if  he  was 
neither  the  Christ,  nor  Elijah,  nor  the  prophet,  he  an- 
swered, "I  baptize  with  water ;  in  the  midst  of  you  stand- 
eth  one,  whom  ye  know  not,  even  he  that  cometh  after 
me,  the  latchet  of  whose  shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  un- 
loose." 

From  this  answer  of  the  Baptist  it  may  be  inferred  that 
Jesus  had  returned  from  the  scene  of  his  temptation  and 
that  John  actually  saw  him  as  he  addressed  the  deputation 
from  Jerusalem. 

The  next  day  John  saw  Jesus  coming  unto  him  and 
said,  "Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world.  This  is  he  of  whom  I  said,  after  me  cometh 
a  man  that  is  become  before  me."  John  then  went  on  to 
say  to  the  multitude  that  he  had  come  to  know  that  Jesus 
was  indeed  the  Christ  by  seeing  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
form  of  a  dove  descending  and  resting  upon  him. 

How  far  John  understood  the  profound  meaning  of  his 
own  words  when  he  described  Jesus  as  "the  Lamb  of  God 
who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,"  we  need  not  stop 
to  inquire.  These  were  the  words  of  one  who  had  been 
filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  in  order  that  he  might  be  a 
true  herald  and  forerunner  of  the  Christ.  To  all  be- 
lievers of  the  sacred  Scriptures  these  are  the  words  that 
really  describe  Jesus  Christ  and  his  mission.  When  one 
reads  them  he  may  think  of  the  lamb  of  the  morning  and 
evening  sacrifice,  or  he  may  think  of  the  paschal  lamb, 


CHRIST'S  FIRST  DISCIPLE  57 

or  he  may  think  of  the  lamb  spoken  of  in  the  53d  chap- 
ter of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  or  he  may  think  of  all  these. 
This  is  the  description  of  Jesus  Christ  as  he  is  presented 
to  the  multitude  at  the  beginning  of  his  life  work. 

On  the  day  following  the  Baptist  was  standing  with 
two  of  his  disciples,  Andrew  and  John,  and,  looking  on 
Jesus  as  he  walked,  he  said,  again,  to  the  two  disciples, 
"Behold  the  Lamb  of  God."  These  two  disciples  of  John 
had  probably  heard  what  the  Baptist  had  said  on  the  pre- 
ceding day,  and  they  promptly  followed  Jesus.  Jesus 
turned  and,  seeing  them  following  him,  said,  "What  seek 
ye?" 

This  question  contained  the  first  words  of  Christ's  pub- 
lic ministry.  In  the  original  the  question  comprises  only 
two  words.  The  time,  the  place,  the  circumstances  in 
which  they  occurred  render  them  profoundly  suggestive 
and  important.  The  two  disciples  who  heard  John  the 
Baptist  say  "Behold  the  Lamb  of  God"  were  seized  by 
some  irresistible  impulse  and  at  once,  without  taking  time 
to  explain  or  apologize,  left  the  old,  tried  friend  and 
teacher,  and  followed  a  new  leader.  What  motive 
prompted  them  to  take  such  a  step  ?  Why  did  they  leave 
the  Baptist  and  follow  Jesus?  Jesus  asked  them  a  very 
reasonable  and  pertinent  question  when  he  said  "What 
seek  ye  ?"  It  was  equivalent  to  saying  "why  are  you  leav- 
ing your  former  master?  What  motive  prompts  you  to 
leave  him  and  follow  me  ?"  The  two  disciples  could  only 
reply,  "Rabbi  where  abidest  thou?"  They  had  not  ana- 
lyzed their  own  motives,  and  could  not  explain  their  ac- 
tion. To  their  question  Jesus  only  replied,  "Come  and  ye 
shall  see."  In  their  question  he  saw  more  than  morbid  or 
idle  curiosity  and  he  welcomed  them  to  his  fellowship.  It 
was  about  four  o'clock,  and  they  came  and  abode  with  him 
that  day.    What  they  heard  and  what  they  saw  this  first 


58    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

day  spent  with  Jesus  is  not  recorded,  but  they  saw  and 
heard  and  felt  what  bound  them  to  him  as  disciples  ever 
afterwards. 

This  brief  sketch  of  the  calling  of  the  first  two  disciples 
manifests  the  self  denying  spirit  of  John  the  Baptist.  He 
was  willing  to  decrease  that  Jesus  might  increase.  It  re- 
veals, at  the  same  time,  the  tender  regard  that  Christ  had 
for  the  timid  ones  who  came  to  him  conscious  only  that 
they  needed  him  and  that  they  wished  to  know  more  of 
him.  These  two  disciples  had  only  the  crudest  and 
vaguest  conception  of  what  they  were  really  doing  and 
Jesus  asked  them  a  most  searching  question.  It  was  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit  discerning  the  thoughts  and  intents 
of  their  hearts,  yet,  when  they  could  only  give  a  very 
vague  answer,  Jesus  did  not  reject  them. 

Andrew  went,  either  that  night  or  early  the  next  morn- 
ing, and  found  his  brother  Simon  and  brought  him  to 
Jesus.  His  own  brother  was  his  first  thought,  for  the 
inspired  record  reads,  "He  findeth  first  his  own  brother 
Simon,  and  saith  to  him,  we  have  found  the  Christ."  In 
this  event  Andrew  displayed  a  little  of  the  enthusiasm 
and  impetuousness  of  his  more  illustrious  brother,  and, 
though  Andrew  did  not  attain  to  the  highest  place  among 
the  apostles,  he  was  the  means  of  converting  his  brother 
who  did  become  a  recognized  leader. 

When  Andrew  brought  Simon  to  Jesus,  Jesus  looked 
on  him  and  said,  "Thou  art  Simon  the  son  of  John; 
thou  shalt  be  called  Cephas,"  which  means  a  stone. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Simon  Peter,  who,  as  an  apostle, 
always  seemed  willing  to  talk,  should  be  entirely  silent 
and  passive  in  the  great  event  that  made  him  a  disciple. 

The  next  day  Jesus  was  minded  to  go  forth  into  Galilee, 
and,  either  before  he  started,  or  as  he  was  going  on  the 
journey,  he  found  Philip,  and  said  unto  him,  "Follow 


CHRIST'S  FIRST  DISCIPLE  59 

me."  Philip's  home  was  in  Bethsaida,  but,  like  John  and 
Andrew  and  Peter,  he  had  probably  come  to  the  Jordan 
to  hear  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist.  Philip  obeyed 
the  Master's  command  and  became  a  disciple.  The  record 
of  the  calling  of  this  disciple  indicates  that  Jesus  had 
been  looking  for  him,  and  nothing  is  said  of  Philip's 
seeking  Jesus.  But  Philip  had  a  friend  named  Nathan- 
ael,  and  his  first  thought  was  of  this  friend,  and  when  he 
had  found  him  he  said  to  him,  "We  have  found  him  of 
whom  Moses  in  the  law,  and  the  prophets  did  write, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  son  of  Joseph." 

From  this  statement  we  readily  infer  that  Philip  and 
Nathanael  had  often  talked  of,  and  were  looking  for  him 
of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  had  written.  They  had 
heard  the  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  and  were  look- 
ing for  the  Christ.  But  Nathanael  lived  in  Cana  near 
Nazareth,  and  was  prejudiced  against  whatsoever  came 
from  so  unimportant  a  place.  He  did  not  think  it  pos- 
sible that  the  little  village  of  Nazareth  so  near  his  own 
home,  could  be  the  home  of  the  Messiah ;  and  he  said 
to  Philip,  "Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth?" 
Philip  did  not  argue  the  question,  but  said  in  reply, 
"Come  and  see." 

When  Nathanael  came  to  Jesus  his  prejudice  quickly 
vanished,  for  Jesus,  seeing  him,  said,  "Behold  an  Israel- 
ite indeed,  in  whom  is  no  guile."  Then,  to  Nathanael's 
astonished  inquiry,  "Whence  knowest  thou  me?"  Jesus 
answered,  "Before  Philip  called  thee,  when  thou  wast 
under  the  fig  tree,  I  saw  thee."  What  had  taken  place 
under  that  fig  tr-ee,  what  secret  of  Nathanael's  life  Jesus 
touched,  was  known  only  to  Jesus  and  Nathanael.  The 
answer  of  Jesus  astonished  and  overwhelmed  Nathanael 
and  he  exclaimed,  "Rabbi,  thou  art  the  Son  of  God, 
thou  art  the  King  of  Israel."    To  this  confession  Jesus 


6o    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

simply  answered,  "Because  I  said  unto  thee,  I  saw  thee 
underneath  the  fig  tree,  beUev-est  thou?  thou  shalt  see 
greater  things  than  these." 

This  very  brief  sketch  of  the  choosing  of  the  first  five 
disciples  is  both  suggestive  and  instructive.  Andrew  and 
John,  having  seen  Jesus  when  he  was  pointed  out  as  the 
"Lamb  of  God,"  followed  him  and  became  his  disciples. 
Peter  was  brought  to  Jesus  by  his  brother  Andrew,  who 
declared,  "we  have  found  the  Messiah."  Jesus  found 
Philip,  and  Philip  at  once  sought  and  found  his  friend 
Nathanael  and  said  to  him,  "We  have  found  him  of  whom 
Moses  and  the  prophets  did  write."  The  entire  record 
indicates  what  discipleship  really  means  and  how  men 
may  become  true  disciples.  The  method  is  adapted  to 
each  individual  case,  but  the  transaction  is  not  completed 
in  any  case  until  the  disciple  has  come  into  direct  contact 
with  the  Master  and  has  accepted  him  as  the  Messiah. 


IX 

A  MARRIAGE  FEAST  AND  THE  FIRST  MIRACLE 

John  2:11.  "This  beginning  of  his  signs  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of 
Galilee  and  manifested  his  glory;  and  his  disciples  believed  on 
him." 

(John  2:  i-ii.) 

AFTER  relating  the  conversion  of  Nathanael,  the 
evangelist  gives  an  account  of  a  marriage  feast 
in  Cana  of  Galilee  where  Jesus  performed  his 
first  miracle.  He  says  that  this  marriage  occurred  on  the 
third  day,  and  that  the  mother  of  Jesus  was  there ;  that 
Jesus  also  was  bidden  with  his  disciples.  There  is  doubt 
as  to  the  exact  time  from  which  the  third  day  should  be 
reckoned,  though  it  seems  to  be  most  consistent  with 
what  is  known  of  the  place  and  the  circumstances  to 
reckon  from  the  day  when  Jesus  left  the  place  where 
John  was  baptizing.  The  distance  to  Cana  was  not  less 
than  eighty  miles,  and  it  would  require  nearly  three  days 
for  Jesus  and  his  disciples  to  make  the  journey.  The 
exact  location  of  Cana  is  doubtful,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
as  to  the  fact  that  it  was  only  a  few  miles  northeast  of 
Nazareth,  that  it  was  a  small  village  on  higher  ground 
than  Caparnum,  and  that  it  was  the  home  of  Nathanael. 
The  mother  of  Jesus  was,  not  only  a  guest  at  this  mar- 
riage, but  seemed  to  have  had  an  important  and  responsi- 
ble part  in  managing  the  wedding  feast.  Jesus  and  his 
disciples  were  amongst  the  invited  guests ;  but  the  record 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  disciples  were  invited  because 

61 


62    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

they  were  disciples,  though  Nathanael,  whose  home  was 
in  Cana,  was,  no  doubt,  a  friend  of  the  family.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  the  time  of  Jesus'  return  from  Judea 
may  have  been  determined  in  part  by  this  marriage,  and 
that  the  men  who  had  become  his  disciples  within  the  last 
fortnight  had  not  been  expected  at  the  wedding. 

Whether  the  wedding  feast  lasted  two  days  or  seven 
days  depended  upon  the  ability  of  the  family  to  meet  the 
expenses.  During  this  wedding  feast  the  wine  ran  short. 
This  would  have  been  a  source  of  mortification  at  any 
marriage,  and  was  peculiarly  distressing  to  the  family  at 
an  oriental  wedding.  It  so  distressed  the  mother  of 
Jesus  that  she  came  to  him  saying,  "They  have  no  wine." 
She  may  have  cherished  a  vague  hope  that  he  could,  in 
some  way,  relieve  the  distress.  There  seemed  to  be  noth- 
ing in  Mary's  words  that  meant  more  than  an  expression 
of  distress,  but  Jesus  saw  more,  and  said  in  reply,  "Wom- 
an, what  have  I  to  do  with  thee?  Mine  hour  is  not  yet 
come."  There  is  no  element  of  harshness  in  this  answer, 
for  the  original  word  that  is  translated  "woman,"  is  re- 
spectful and  tender.  Nevertheless,  he  did  not  say, 
"Mother,"  but  "woman,"  and,  when  he  adds,  "mine  hour 
is  not  yet  come,"  he  very  clearly  indicated  that  he  recog- 
nized a  higher  authority,  and  that  he  must  wait  for  his 
heavenly  Father. 

There  was  something  in  Jesus'  answer  that  led  Mary 
to  believe  that  her  Son's  hour  was  near,  if  it  had  not  yet 
come,  and  she  direct-ed  the  servants  to  do  whatsoever  he 
commanded  them.  For  thirty  years  she  had  pondered 
in  her  heart  the  many  wonderful  events  connected  with  the 
birth  of  her  dearly  beloved  Son,  and  now  she  seemed  im- 
pressed with  the  thought  that  he  was  about  to  begin  a 
career  that  would  reveal  his  high  mission,  though  it  was 
to  end  in  the  piercing  of  her  own  soul. 


A  MARRIAGE  FEAST  63 

According  to  the  custom  of  the  Jews  on  such  occasions, 
six  stone  water  pots  were  standing  there,  having  a  ca- 
pacity of  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  gal- 
lons. Christ  bade  the  servants  fill  them  with  water  and, 
when  they  had  been  filled,  he  said,  "Draw  out  now  and 
bear  unto  the  ruler  of  the  feast."  The  servants  obeyed, 
and  the  ruler  of  the  feast,  when  he  had  tasted  the  water 
that  had  become  wine,  not  knowing  whence  it  came, 
called  the  bridegroom  and  said  to  him,  "Every  man  set- 
teth  on  first  the  good  wine,  and  when  men  have  drunk 
freely,  then  that  which  is  worse;  but  thou  has  kept  the 
good  wine  until  now." 

The  evangelist  John  says  that  this  was  Christ's  first 
miracle  or  sign,  and  the  same  writer  tells  us  that  John 
the  Baptist  performed  no  miracles.  It  seems  befitting, 
therefore,  that  we  should  pause  for  a  moment  and  study 
this  new  epoch  in  Christ's  history,  this  beginning  of 
signs.  What  was  there  in  it  that  made  it  essentially  dif- 
ferent from  any  of  the  acts  of  John  the  Baptist,  or  from 
any  of  the  acts  of  Jesus  up  to  this  time?  Why  is  it  called 
a  sign  or  a  miracle  ?  Wherein  did  it  differ  from  the  ordi- 
nary acts  of  other  men? 

It  differed  essentially  in  this,  that  there  was  here  the 
result  of  the  exercise  of  a  supernatural  power.  Water 
became  wine.  If  one  thinks  of  it  only  as  marvelous,  he 
may  call  it  a  miracle ;  if  he  thinks  of  it  as  indicating  the 
presence  of  a  supernatural  being  or  power,  he  may  call 
it  a  sign.  The  evangelist  calls  it  a  sign,  though  in  King 
James'  translation  it  is  called  a  miracle.  The  name  is  not 
important.  The  really  important  matter  is  that  there  was 
present  a  supernatural  power,  for  there  was  an  effect  that 
had  no  adequate  natural  cause. 

In  his  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  Jesus  had  refused 
to  exercise  his  divine  power.     He  would  not  command 


64    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

stones  to  become  bread  in  order  to  satisfy  his  own 
hunger.  Why  does  he  now,  at  this  marriage  feast,  and 
afterwards,  exercise  his  divine  power? 

The  first  answer  to  this  question  is  that  he  performed 
miracles  as  his  credentials,  proving  to  men  that  he  was  the 
representative  of  God  A  miracle,  or  the  exercise  of 
supernatural  power,  is  ordinarily  most  improbable,  and 
one  should  not  believe  in  a  miracle  on  the  same  evidence 
that  would  convince  him  of  an  ordinary  or  natural  event. 
Every  possible  effort  to  explain  any  event  by  natural 
causes  should  precede  the  belief  that  it  is  the  result  of 
supernatural  causes.  It  is  antecedently  improbable  that 
the  all  wise  Creator  should  have  so  constructed  his  uni- 
verse that  it  would  require  his  direct  interference  to  se- 
cure the  outworking  of  his  eternal  purposes.  As  an  in- 
telligent Being,  the  Creator  can  work  through  his  own 
laws,  and  he  does  not  need  to  interfere  with  them ;  there- 
fore, miracles,  or  supernatural  signs,  are  ordinarily  most 
improbable.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  Creator  wishes  at 
any  time  to  send  a  message  to  his  intelligent  creature,  it 
is  most  reasonable  that  he  should  give  his  messenger 
supernatural  power  as  a  credential  or  sign  or  proof  of  his 
commission  and  authority  to  speak  for  his  Creator.  When 
Moses  was  about  to  go  to  his  brethren  in  Egypt  he  felt  the 
need  of  such  credentials,  and  God  gave  him  the  power  to 
work  miracles  or  show  signs.  Elijah  on  Carmel  was 
clothed  with  divine  power.  The  prophets  foretold  that 
the  Christ  should  open  blind  eyes,  unstop  deaf  ears,  make 
the  lame  to  walk  and  perform  supernatural  works;  and 
Christ  appealed  to  men  to  believe  on  him  for  his  works 
sake.  If  one  now  professes  to  have  authority  from  God 
to  reveal  some  new  truth  or  impose  some  new  duty  he 
should  not  expect  men  to  believe  if  he  failed  to  work  the 
works  of  God.    On  the  other  hand,  if  any  one  in  this  age 


A  MARRIAGE  FEAST      ^  65 

could  show,  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  that  he  was 
clothed  with  supernatural  power,  men  could  not  refuse  to 
accept  his  message.  Jesus  performed  miracles  as  creden- 
tials, and  could  say,  "If  I  had  not  done  among  them  the 
works  which  none  other  did,  they  had  not  had  sin;  but 
now  have  they  both  seen  and  hated  both  me  and  my 
Father"  (John  15:24). 

Nevertheless,  Jesus'  works  were  more  than  mere  signs 
and  wonders.  He  would  not  cast  himself  down  from  a 
pinnacle  of  the  temple  where  a  great  multitude  might  see 
and  wonder,  and  he  would  not  give  to  those  who  sought 
it  a  sign  from  heaven.  His  works  were  signs  that  in- 
dicated the  character  and  purpose  of  his  mission.  He 
healed  diseases,  cast  out  devils  and  raised  the  dead.  He 
helped  and  saved  men. 

This  first  supernatural  work  of  Christ  seems  well 
adapted  to  arrest  attention  and  suggest  questions.  He 
had  refused  to  transmute  stones  into  bread ;  he  had  re- 
fused to  cast  himself  down  from  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple ; 
why  did  he  change  water  into  wine  at  this  marriage  feast 
in  the  little  town  of  Galilee? 

In  seeking  to  answer  these  questions,  one  can  hardly 
fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  miracle  was  per- 
formed at  a  marriage  feast.  Jesus  did  not  enter  into  the 
marriage  relation,  and  men  might  have  inferred  that  per- 
fect manhood  was  not  possible  in  the  marriage  relation. 
His  presence  and  his  part  in  this  marriage,  therefore, 
exalt  and  honour  this  venerable  and  divine  institution. 
It  indicates  God's  interest  in  the  establishment  of  a  new 
home,  where  husband  and  wife  become  one  in  mutual 
love  and  by  the  ordinance  of  God.  After  the  banishment 
from  Eden,  no  other  event  has  done  so  much  to  exalt, 
purify  and  honour  the  institution  of  marriage  as  this  first 
miracle  of  Jesus  at  a  marriage  feast.     It  assures  all  men 


66    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  this  holy  and  happy  relation  has  Christ's  approval 
and  blessing,  and  that  he  is  interested  in  the  rejoicings 
of  a  marriage  feast. 

The  miracle  itself  is  significant.  The  enjoyment  of 
the  young  people  who  had  been  united  in  marriage  was 
about  to  give  place  to  intense  mortification  that  would 
have  marred  their  happiness  in  coming  years,  and,  in 
order  to  prevent  this,  Jesus  exercised  his  supernatural 
power.  Had  it  been  the  marriage  of  the  king's  son,  it 
would  not  have  seemed  so  remarkable,  but  it  was  only 
the  manage  of  two  Galilean  peasants.  Is  it  a  small  mat- 
ter that  the  Saviour  of  the  world  should  manifest  so  deep 
an  interest  in  the  happiness  of  this  young  husband  and 
wife  so  unknown  to  fortune  and  to  fame?  Does  not  the 
fact  that  their  names  were  not  given  teach  that  Jesus 
Christ  has  a  like  interest  in  every  Christian  marriage? 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  Christ's  turning 
water  into  wine  gives  no  encouragement  to  drunkenness 
any  more  than  the  fact  that  he  attended  a  marriage  feast 
would  give  sanction  to  lust  and  impurity.  His  turning 
water  into  wine  was  more  than  an  accelerated  natural 
process ;  it  was  a  direct  divine  act,  but  it  gives  no  sanc- 
tion whatsoever  to  the  abuse  of  wine,  either  by  drunkards 
or  by  covetous  drunkard-makers.  As  his  first  miracle 
it  indicates  the  divine  power  and  the  loving,  compas- 
sionate spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God;  it  indi- 
cates, at  the  same  time,  the  loving  kindness  that  prompted 
all  his  acts  as  the  Son  of  man.  The  thought  of  this  mira- 
cle has  gladdened  the  hearts  and  purified  the  homes  of 
men  in  all  Christian  ages.  Moses  performed  his  first 
miracle  for  the  deliverance  of  God's  people  by  turning 
Egypt's  sacred  river  into  blood.  Jesus  Christ  began  his 
work  of  deliverance  from  the  bondage  of  sin  by  turning 
water  into  wine. 


JESUS  IN  CAPERNAUM 

John  2:  11-12.  "This  beginning  of  his  signs  did  Jesus  in  Cana 
of  Galilee,  and  manifested  his  glory;  and  his  disciples  believed 
on  him.  After  this  he  went  down  to  Capernaum,  he,  and  his 
mother,  and  his  brethren,  and  his  disciples;  and  there  they 
abode  not  many  days." 

(John  2:  12.) 

THERE  was  a  striking  contrast  between  the  begin- 
ning of  the  public  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  first  appearance  of  John  the  Baptist.  When 
John  began  preaching  repentance  and  preparing  the  way 
of  the  Lord  he  was  not  far  from  the  Dead  Sea.  He 
seemed  to  be  standing  in  the  shadow  of  the  rain  of  fire 
and  brimstone  that,  in  the  days  of  Abraham  and  Lot,  de- 
stroyed Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  He  was  in  a  wild,  weird, 
melancholy  desert.  All  his  surroundings  seemed  to  har- 
monize with  his  rough  clothing  and  his  leathern  girdle, 
while  the  waters  of  the  Jordan,  as  they  were  lost  in  the 
Dead  Sea,  seemed  to  emphasize  his  rugged  eloquence. 
When  Jesus  Christ  began  his  public  ministry  his  environ- 
ment was  altogether  different.  Instead  of  being  alone, 
and  looking  over  the  rugged  hills  in  a  Judean  desert,  he 
was  surrouded  by  his  friends  at  a  wedding  feast  in  a  lit- 
tle village  of  Galillee.  Having  performed  his  first  mira- 
cle at  this  marriage  feast  he  went  with  his  mother,  his 
brethren  and  his  disciples  down  to  the  beautiful  city  of 

67 


68    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Capernaum,  situated  on  the  shore  overlooking  the  clear, 
sparkling  waters  of  the  sea  of  Galilee. 

We  cannot  in  this  day  identify  the  site  of  Capernaum, 
but  we  know  that,  in  Jesus'  time,  it  was  a  prosperous  and 
beautiful  city;  that  it  had  elegant  public  buildings,  in- 
cluding a  synagogue  erected  by  a  Roman  nobleman.  The 
whole  region  of  Gennesaret  was,  at  that  time,  like  the  val- 
ley of  the  lower  Jordan  when  it  seemed  to  Abraham  and 
Lot  the  very  "garden  of  the  Lord."  Capernaum  was 
probably  the  most  beautiful  city  on  the  inland  sea. 

The  synoptic  writers  give  no  hint  that  Jesus  came  to 
Capernaum  until  after  John  the  Baptist  had  been  im- 
prisoned by  Herod  Antipas,  but  John  gives  an  extended 
account  of  a  visit  to  Jerusalem  and  the  outlying  districts 
of  Judea  before  the  arrest  of  the  Baptist.  In  view  of  the 
evident  fact  that  the  evangelists  do  not  relate  events  in 
their  exact  chronological  order,  it  seems  evident  that 
Jesus  made  his  first  visit  to  Galilee  before  John  was  im- 
prisoned; that  he  went  to  Capernaum  immediately  after 
the  marriage  at  Cana ;  that  he  stayed  in  Capernaum  a 
few  days,  and  then,  in  company  with  friends,  went  to 
Jerusalem.  This  method  of  harmonizing  the  different 
narratives  does  no  violence  to  any  of  the  records,  but  it 
regards  Matthew  4:  12-17  as  a  general  statement  covering 
the  whole  period. 

Capernaum  was  the  home  of  Andrew,  Peter  and  John, 
three  disciples  who  had  been  with  Jesus  at  the  marriage 
in  Cana,  and  it  is  probable  that  they  entertained  him  and 
his  friends  when  they  came  to  Capernaum  after  the  mar- 
riage. This,  however,  is  only  a  conjecture-  Nazareth, 
the  home  of  Jesus  for  the  first  thirty  years  of  his  life,  was 
not  more  than  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  from  Capernaum, 
and  it  is  probable  that  his  family  had  other  acquaintances 
and  friends  in  the  city.    Nevertheless,  the  evangelists  give 


JESUS  IN  CAPERNAUM  69 

no  indication  that  Jesus,  up  to  this  time,  had  ever  been  in 
what  afterwards  came  to  be  known  as  "his  own  city." 

During  his  brief  visit  Jesus  performed  no  miracles  and 
probably  did  not  appear  as  a  public  teacher.  His  recent 
miracle  at  Cana  and  the  reports  brought  by  Andrew,  John 
and  Peter,  with  regard  to  the  testimony  they  had  heard 
from  the  lips  of  John  the  Baptist  when  he  had  proclaimed 
Jesus  the  "Lamb  of  God,"  would  render  him  the  center 
of  interest  and  the  topic  of  conversation.  No  opposition 
had  developed.  Jesus  was  with  his  friends  in  a  city  of 
palms,  vines,  oranges,  figs,  almonds  and  pomegranates, 
where  Josephus  says,  that  the  seasons  compete  for  the 
honor  of  possession  and  nature  gathers  all  the  elements 
of  her  strength.  If  Jesus  had  come  into  the  world  to  do 
his  own  will  he  could  have  found  many  good  reasons  for 
staying  in  this  beautiful  city  by  the  lake,  whose  very  name, 
Gennesaret,  means  "Garden  of  Abundance,"  but  he 
abode  there  "not  many  days." 


XI 


CHRIST'S   FIRST   OFFICIAL   VISIT   TO   JERU- 
SALEM 

John  2:  13.    "And  the  passover  of  the  Jews  was  at  hand  and 
Jesus  went  up  to  Jerusalem." 
(John  2:  13-22.) 

THE  synoptic  gospels  are  silent  concerning  our 
Lord's  early  ministry  in  Jtidea,  and  they  do  not 
tell  of  his  presence  at  any  feast  of  the  passover 
after  he  was  twelve  years  old  except  the  last,  when  he 
was  crucified.  John,  on  the  other  hand,  gives  a  brief, 
and  connected  account  of  Christ's  early  visit  to  Judea  and 
tells  of  other  visits  to  the  feasts  of  the  Jews  during  his 
public  ministry.  After  saying  that  Jesus,  with  his  mother 
and  brethren  and  disciples,  went  from  Cana  to  Caperna- 
um, and  that  they  did  not  long  remain  there,  he  says,  "the 
passover  of  the  Jews  was  at  hand,  and  Jesus  went  tip  to 
Jerusalem." 

It  is  probable  that  Jesus  was  present  at  every  passover 
feast  after  he  was  twelve  years  old,  but  this  was  his  first 
official  visit  to  Jerusalem,  and  his  presence  at  this  pass- 
over  was  •essentially  dififerent  from  his  attendance  at  any 
passover  that  had  preceded  it.  He  had  been  baptized  ;  he 
had  begun  his  public  ministry ;  the  Spirit,  in  the  form  of 
a  dove,  had  descended  from  heaven  and  had  rested  upon 
him ;  a  voice  from  Heaven  had  proclaimed  him  the  be- 
loved Son  of  God ;  he  had  met  the  tempter  in  the  wilder- 

70 


FIRST  OFFICIAL  VISIT  TO  JERUSALEM     71 

ness,  had  chosen  five  disciples,  and  had  performed  his  first 
miracle,  when  he  came  suddenly  to  his  temple. 

On  his  way  from  Capernaum  to  Jerusalem  he  probably 
traveled  with  his  mother,  his  brethren  and  his  disciples 
and  a  large  company  of  devout  Jews  who  were  going  up 
to  the  great  annual  feast.  His  mother  and  his  dis- 
ciples, who  had  witnessed  the  miracle  at  Cana,  believed 
that  "his  hour  had  come,"  and  their  hearts  were  filled 
with  hope.  But  who  can  understand  or  describe  his  own 
deep  emotion  as  he  realized  that  he  had  left  the  quiet, 
peaceful,  happy  home  at  Nazareth,  that  he  was  face  to 
face  with  his  great  life  work,  the  work  of  redeeming  a 
lost  world?  His  hour  had  come,  but  he  knew  that  the 
battle  must  precede  the  victory,  that  the  cross  must  come 
before  the  crown ;  that  he  must  lay  down  his  life  in  order 
to  destroy  the  power  of  the  prince  of  this  world.  If 
Moses  felt  a  great  burden  of  responsibility  when,  com- 
missioned by  the  God  of  Abraham,  he  journeyed  from 
Horeb  to  Egypt,  how  much  greater  was  Christ's  burden 
as  he  went  to  Jerusalem  to  contend  with  the  prince  of 
this  world  for  the  redemption  of  his  own  people.  Pha- 
raoh and  Egyptian  bondage  were  but  types  and  shadows, 
but  Jesus  was  to  meet  the  realities  that  cast  these  shadows. 

When  the  Lord  of  the  temple  came  to  the  temple  of  the 
Lord,  he  came  as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  the  sons  of 
Levi.  He  found  the  worship  of  the  temple  degraded 
and  corrupted  by  greed  of  gain,  for  the  house  of  prayer 
had  been  made  a  house  of  merchandise,  a  market  house 
where  greed  of  gain  drowned  the  spirit  of  worship. 

This  condition  of  affairs  had  come  about  gradually. 
Every  Israelite,  whether  rich  or  poor,  was  required  to 
pay  annually  a  half  shekel  as  an  atonement  for  his  soul, 
and  the  priests  began  to  collect  this  tribute  twenty  days 
before  the   feast.    For  the  convenience  of  worshipers 


y2    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

who  came  from  other  provinces  and  other  countries,  it 
was  necessary  to  have  some  place  where  the  money  they 
brought  with  them  could  be  exchanged  for  this  tribute 
money.  It  was  necessary,  also,  to  have  a  market  where 
the  worshipers  could  buy  victims  for  sacrifice.  Greed  of 
gain  and  desire  to  get  the  best  places  for  exchange  and 
market  had  led  these  covetous  Jews  to  encroach  more 
and  more  on  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  temple.  When 
Jesus  saw  these  degenerate  Jews  in  the  temple,  making 
a  gain  of  godliness  and  defiling  the  place  that  had  been 
consecrated  to  the  worship  of  God,  he  made  a  scourge  of 
cords  and  drove  out  the  sheep  and  the  oxen,  overthrew 
the  tables  of  the  money  changers,  and  said  to  those  who 
sold  doves,  "Take  these  things  hence;  make  not  my 
Father's  house  a  house  of  merchandise." 

When  Jesus'  disciples  saw  this  outburst  of  righteous 
indignation,  they  must  have  been  surprised  beyond  meas- 
ure. He  seemed  very  unlike  the  Jesus  that  had  been 
pointed  out  to  them  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  very  differ- 
ent from  the  one  who  had  performed  the  miracle  at  Cana. 
This  act  suggested  that  he  was  the  "lion  of  the  tribe  of 
Judah,"  rather  than  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  the  disciples 
remembered  that  it  had  been  written,  "The  Zeal  of  thine 
house  shall  eat  me  up."     Ps.  69 :  9. 

John  does  not  call  this  act  of  Jesus  a  miracle,  and  the 
account  he  gives  does  not  warrant  us  in  calling  it  a  super- 
natural event.  The  man  Christ  Jesus  was  so  gentle  that 
he  would  not  break  the  bruised  reed  nor  quench  the  glim- 
mering wick,  yet  his  righteous  indignation  was  awe-in- 
spiring and  overwhelming.  Conscience  made  cowards 
of  these  defilers  of  the  temple.  They  could  bitterly  hate 
the  one  who  had  come  between  them  and  their  sacri- 
legious greed  of  gain,  but  they  must  wait  for  their  op- 
portunity to  get  revenge.     They  did  not  dare  to  resist. 


FIRST  OFFICIAL  VISIT  TO  JERUSALEM     73 

Their  fear,  not  their  humility,  restrained  them  from  do- 
ing more  than  offering  a  protest,  saying,  "What  sign 
showest  thou  unto  us  seeing  thou  doest  these  things." 

To  this  suspiciously  meek  and  submissive  question, 
Jesus  answered,  "Destroy  this  temple  and  in  three  days  I 
will  raise  it  up."  The  Jews  replied,  "Forty  and  six  years 
was  this  temple  in  building  and  wilt  thou  raise  it  up  in 
three  days?" 

John  explains  that  Jesus  spoke  of  the  temple  of  his 
body,  and  adds  that,  after  his  resurrection,  his  disciples 
remembered  that  he  had  said  this.  This  dark  saying  was 
also  remembered  by  others,  and  it  enabled  Christ's  ene- 
mies, at  his  trial,  to  make  it  appear  that  the  purifier  of 
the  temple  was  the  enemy  of  the  temple.  In  the  court  of 
Caiaphas,  long  afterwards,  two  false  witnesses  testified 
that  they  had  heard  Jesus  say,  "I  am  able  to  destroy  the 
temple  of  God  and  to  build  it  in  three  days." 

The  Jewish  leaders  also  remembered  these  words,  and 
seemed  to  have  caught  their  real  meaning,  for  they  evi- 
dently referred  to  this  saying  when,  after  his  death,  they 
went  to  Pilate,  and  said,  "We  remember  that  this  deceiver 
said,  while  he  was  yet  alive,  'After  three  days  I  will  rise 
again.' "  No  other  recorded  words  of  Jesus  could  have 
warranted  the  Jews  in  making  this  statement  to  Pilate. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  turn  aside  and  consider  the  ques- 
tion whether  this  account  of  the  cleansing  of  the  temple 
given  by  John  can  be  identified  with  the  accounts  given  by 
Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that 
this  cleansing  took  place  at  the  beginning  of  Christ's  pub- 
lic ministry  and  that  the  other  is  placed  definitely  at  its 
close,  so  that  the  two  cannot  be  identified.  Moreover, 
there  seems  to  be  good  reason  why  the  first  and  last  acts 
of  Christ  should  be  directly  connected  with  the  system 
of  worship  that  had  been  instituted  to  typify  his  own 


74    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

great  work  of  redemption.  The  type  had  been  defiled 
and  degraded,  and  it  was  befitting  that  the  antitype  should 
begin  his  work  by  purifying  his  temple,  and  that  he  should 
close  his  work  in  the  same  day. 

The  impression  made  on  the  multitude  by  the  purifying 
of  the  temple  was  favorable,  for  many  believed  on  his 
name  when  they  saw  the  signs  which  he  did.  They  hailed 
him  as  a  reformer,  and  applauded  his  acts.  They  would, 
no  doubt,  have  rallied  about  him  and  proclaimed  him 
their  leader,  if  he  had  asked  them  to  do  so,  but  he  knew 
what  was  in  man  and  set  a  true  value  on  the  approval  of 
the  fickle  multitude.  They  applauded  him  then  as  the  puri- 
fier of  the  temple  and  its  worship,  but,  for  this  act,  he  was 
afterward  condemned  and  crucified  as  the  destroyer  of 
the  temple.  Like  every  act  of  real  courage,  it  brought 
applause  from  the  multitude,  but,  like  every  bold,  cour- 
ageous and  conscientious  attack  on  sin,  it  made  bitter 
enemies ;  these  enemies,  through  fear,  kept  silence  for  a 
time,  but,  in  the  end,  sought  to  destroy  the  reformer.  At 
the  very  beginning  of  his  life  work  Christ  did  the  acts 
and  spake  the  words  that  helped  to  nail  him  to  the  cross, 
but  he  knew  what  the  final  outcome  would  be.  Some  men 
enter  into  the  work  of  fighting  sin,  thinking  that  their 
acts  will  be  appreciated  and  rewarded  by  men,  and  they 
are  disappointed.  Christ  did  not  expect  his  acts  to  be 
appreciated  and  rewarded  by  men,  for  he  knew  what  was 
in  man. 


XII 

JESUS   CHRIST  AND  NICODEMUS 

John  3 : 3.    "Except  a  man  be  born  from  above,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God." 
(John  2:23;    3-2i) 

HOW  long  Jesus  stayed  at  Jerusalem  after  the 
passover  can  only  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  his  works  and  teachings  led  many  to  be- 
lieve on  him.  His  cleansing  of  the  temple  had  arrested 
the  attention  of  all  classes,  and,  while  it  created  enmity, 
it  also  laid  the  foundation  for  faith  In  him,  and  for  life- 
long friendships.  Among  those  who  had  become  inter- 
ested in  the  young  Galilean  prophet  was  a  ruler  of  the 
Jews  named  Nicodemus,  a  liberal,  fair-minded,  but  cau- 
tious, worldly-wise  man.  He  was  interested  in  the  new 
prophet  from  Nazareth  and  was  willing  to  accept  him  as 
a  divinely  commissioned  teacher,  but  he  feared  his  pro- 
vincial rashness,  and  did  not  wish  to  become  responsible 
for  him.  He  felt  that,  if  wisely  directed  by  prudent 
counsellors,  Jesus  might  become  a  great  leader.  He  did 
not  venture  to  come  to  him  openly,  but  he  did  come  by 
night  and  said  to  him,  "Rabbi,  we  know  that  thou  art  a 
teacher  come  from  God ;  for  no  man  can  do  these  signs 
that  thou  doest,  except  God  be  with  him." 

Christ's  courageous  and  successful  cleansing  of  the 
temple  was  sufficient  to  arr-est  the  attention  and  enlist  the 
interest  of  such  a  careful  observer  and  discerner  of  the 
signs  of  the  times  as  Nicodemus.    The  power  to  inspire 

75 


76    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

such  awe  in  the  hearts  of  greedy,  covetous  Jews  as  would 
constrain  them  to  give  up  their  sacrilegious  but  profitable 
traffic  without  a  struggle  was  a  sufficient  sign  that  this 
Teacher  had  come  from  God.  It  is  probable,  also,  that 
Nicodemus  had  seen  other  signs  that  convinced  him  that 
Jesus  spake  and  acted  with  divine  authority. 

This  visit  of  a  recognized  ruler  of  the  Jews  was  a  re- 
markable and  an  encouraging  event;  but  his  coming  by 
night  suggested  doubt  as  to  the  final  issue.  The  visit  of 
Nicodemus  was  a  visit  for  investigation,  rather  than  for 
such  simple,  frank  inquiry  as  that  of  Andrew  and  John, 
when  they  said,-  "Master,  where  dwellest  thou  ?"  As  a 
man  full  of  wordly  wisdom  he  would  investigate  before 
accepting  or  rejecting  the  claims  of  one  in  whom  he  had 
some  interest.  He  was  naturally  timid  and  cautious,  and 
his  position  as  a  ruler  of  the  Jews  developed  this  natural 
tendency.  He  was  in  an  atmosphere  of  formalism,  in  an 
environment  where  respectability  and  the  established 
order  of  things  determined  questions  of  right  and  wrong. 
He  could  not  give  his  endorsement  to  anything  that  would 
disturb  the  order  of  society,  even  if  it  commended  itself 
to  his  intelligence  and  conscience.  He  was  in  sympathy 
with  the  Reformer  who  had  cleansed  the  temple,  but  the 
method  seemed  to  savour  of  rashness  and  imprudence, 
and  he  did  not  wish  to  commit  himself  to  a  movement 
until  he  had  counted  the  cost. 

Jesus  met  him  with  the  most  perfect  frankness.  He 
accepted  the  position  assigned  him,  as  "a  teacher  come 
from  God,"  and,  understanding  Nicodemus  perfectly,  an- 
swered his  salutation  by  saying,  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  except  a  man  be  born  from  above,  he  cannot  see  the 
Kingdom  of  God." 

There  was  neither  compliment  nor  disrespect  in  these 
words  of  Jesus.     It  was  too  serious  a  matter  to  leave  any 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  NICODEMUS  ^7 

room  for  compliments.  He  had  been  addressed  as  "a 
teacher  come  from  God,"  by  a  man  who  had  been  looking 
upon  religion  as  a  matter  of  outward  forms  and  mere 
respectability,  by  one  who  would  not  think  of  doing  any- 
thing that  was  reckoned  profane  or  irreverent,  by  one 
who,  in  reality,  was  only  a  formalist;  Jesus  said  to  this 
man  in  the  most  earnest  and  impressive  way,  "Except  a 
man  be  born  again  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God." 
It  was  a  solemn  assurance  that  all  his  forms  were  of  no 
value  without  the  radical  renewal  of  the  heart. 

Nicodemus  said  in  astonishment,  "How  can  a  man  be 
born  when  he  is  old  ?"  He  did  not  see  that  religion  was 
so  radical  a  thing  that  it  could  be  called  a  new  birth  or  an 
actual  regeneration.  Jesus  replied  with  even  greater  em- 
phasis, that  all  outward  forms  of  religion  were  absolutely 
worthless  when  they  were  not  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  implanting  new  life  in  the  heart.  He  said  again, 
"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  see  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh ;  and  that  which 
is  born  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit.  Marvel  not  that  I  said 
unto  thee,  ye  must  be  born  again."  He  then  told  Nico- 
demus that  this  birth  from  above  was  as  mysterious  as 
the  wind,  and  known  only  by  its  results.  When  Nico- 
demus asked  "how  can  these  things  be  ?"  Jesus  answered, 
"Art  thou  a  teacher  of  Israel  and  understandest  not  these 
things  ?  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  we  speak  that  we 
do  know,  and  bear  witness  of  that  we  have  seen  and  ye 
receive  not  our  witness.  If  I  have  told  you  earthly  things 
and  ye  believe  not,  how  shall  ye  believe,  if  I  tell  you 
heavenly  things  ?" 

Assuming  that  John  3: 13-21,  is  a  continuation  of  the 
account  of  the  conversation  with  Nicodemus,  Jesus  pro- 
ceeded to  explain  that  he  was  more  than  "a  teacher  come 


78    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

from  God."  He  said,  "No  man  hath  ascended  into 
heaven  but  he  that  descended  out  of  heaven,  even  the  Son 
of  man  who  is  in  heaven."  Then  he  added,  "As  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the 
Son  of  man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth  may  in 
him  have  eternal  life."  Nicodemus  had  recognized  Jesus 
as  a  teacher,  but  Jesus  declared  that  he  was  more  than  a 
teacher;  that,  when  lifted  up  from  the  earth  as  the  ser- 
pent was  lifted  up,  he  would  give  eternal  life  to  every  one 
who  looked  upon  him  with  the  eye  of  faith.  He  went  on 
to  tell  Nicodemus  of  the  love  of  God  that  prompted  him 
to  give  eternal  life  to  men,  and,  in  doing  this,  he  incident- 
ally proclaimed  himself  the  Son  of  God,  for  he  said,  "God 
so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  eternal  life."  Then  he  added  that  God's  purpose 
was  not  to  condemn,  but  to  save  the  world,  and  warned 
Nicodemus  that  this  very  love  of  God  might  be  rejected 
and  made  the  reason  for  condemnation,  as  he  said,  "This 
is  the  judgment  that  the  light  is  come  into  the  world  and 
men  loved  the  darkness  rather  than  the  light  because  their 
deeds  were  evil." 

Looked  at  from  the  standpoint  of  human  wisdom. 
Jesus,  at  the  beginning  of  his  public  ministry  at  Jerusalem, 
did  not  seem  tactful  and  prudent.  He  had  found  a  great 
evil  entrenched  behind  a  custom  that  had  been  tolerated 
until  it  had  become  respectable,  and,  without  waiting  to 
secure  the  co-operation  of  others,  he  had  attacked  and 
overthrown  it.  In  doing  this,  he  had  incurred  the  intense 
hatred  of  all  the  covetous  and  greedy  money  changers  and 
others  who  had  been  defiling  the  temple.  He  had  made 
relentless  enemies  that  would  not  forget  him,  and  those 
who  applauded  him  would  forget  him.  Then  he  had  met 
this  Jewish  ruler,  and  had  taught  doctrines  that  were  as 


JESUS  CHRIST  AND  NICODEMUS  79 

radical  and  revolutionary  as  his  acts  had  seemed  rash  and 
imprudent.  Yet  this  was  God's  way,  and  in  all  this  Jesus 
acted  with  divine  wisdom.  In  all  this  he  is  an  example 
for  his  followers.  So  far  as  Christians  can  act  with  the 
same  pure  motives  that  Jesus  did  when  he  purified  the 
temple,  so  far  they  may  follow  his  example.  So  far  as 
they  have  the  same  pure  motives  that  he  had,  they  should 
be  as  frank  as  he  was  with  Nicodemus. 

A  lady  once  chided  Frederick  W.  Robertson  for  doing 
a  righteous  thing  which  she  thought  imprudent.  When 
she  told  him  what  she  thought  would  be  the  evil  conse- 
quences to  himself,  he  replied,  "I  don't  care."  When  she 
said,  "You  know  what  became  of  'I  don't  care'  ?"  he  an- 
swered, with  the  deepest  reverence,  "Yes,  he  was  crucified 
on  Calvary."  Christ's  example  never  warrants  real  im- 
prudence, and  men  need  to  be  sure  that  they  have  as  per- 
fect knowledge  and  as  pure  motives  as  he  had  before  they 
plead  his  example  for  doing  what  their  fellow-men  deem 
imprudent ;  but,  when  any  man  knows  perfectly  that  he 
is  confronted  with  wrong  that  should  be  overthrown,  his 
duty  is  plain ;  and,  if  he  falter,  he  is  not  Christlike ;  if 
he  hesitate,  he  has  not  the  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 


'  XIII 

THE  DISCIPLES  OF  JESUS  BAPTIZING  IN 
JUDEA 

John  3 :  30.    "He  must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease." 
(John  3:22-36.) 

AFTER  the  conversation  with  Nicodemus  Jesus  and 
his  disciples  went  from  Jerusalem  out  into  the 
rural  districts  of  Judea.  Just  where  he  went  is 
not  known,  but  from  what  follows  it  is  evident  that  he 
went  into  the  neighbourhood  where  John  was  baptizing, 
and  John  had  come  west  of  the  Jordan  to  an  unknown 
place  called  ^non  near  Salim,  Near  this  place  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus,  not  only  baptized,  but  baptized  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  excite  the  jealousy  of  John's  disciples,  and  to 
give  rise  to  a  report  that  Jesus  was  baptizing  more  dis- 
ciples than  John.  In  process  of  time  a  dispute  arose  be- 
tween John's  disciples  and  a  Jew  about  purifying,  and  this 
dispute  probably  related  to  the  necessity  for  John's  bap- 
tism, or  the  relative  merits  of  the  two  baptisms. 

Why  the  disciples  of  Jesus  baptized  in  the  early  part  of 
his  ministry  and  discontinued  it  afterwards  is  not  known. 
This  event  seems  to  have  been  recorded  because  it  gave 
John  another  opportunity  to  bear  witness  to  Jesus  Christ. 
When  the  disciples  of  John  came  to  him  with  the  report 
that  "all  men"  were  coming  to  Jesus,  they  had  sincere 
sorrow  for  their  own  master,  and  it  seemed  to  them  the 
harder  to  bear  because  he  had  been  overshadowed  and 
superseded  by  one  whom  he  had  introduced.     In  their  re- 

80 


DISCIPLES  OF^  JESUS  BAPTIZING  IN  JUDEA  8i 

port  to  John  they  speak  of  Jesus  as  "he  that  was  with  thee 
beyond  Jordan  to  whom  thou  bearest  witness." 

John's  answer  to  his  disciples  is  replete  with  cheerful, 
humble  loyalty.  He  said  "A  man  can  receive  nothing  ex- 
cept it  have  been  give  him  from  heaven.  Ye  yourselves 
bear  me  witness  that  I  said,  'I  am  not  the  Christ,  but  that 
I  am  sent  before  him.  He  that  hath  the  bride  is  the  bride- 
groom, but  the  friend  of  the  bridegroom  which  standeth 
and  heareth  him  rejoiceth  greatly  because  of  the  bride- 
groom's voice ;  this  my  joy,  therefore,  is  fulfilled.  He 
must  increase,  but  I  must  decrease."  He  was  the  true 
friend  and  not  in  any  sense  the  rival  of  the  Christ.  It 
was  the  fullness  of  his  joy  that  Christ  should  increase 
even  if  it  involved  his  decrease. 

We  assume  that  John  3  :  31-36  is  a  report  of  what  John 
the  Baptist  said,  rather  than  a  statement  of  the  evangelist's 
own  views  of  Christ.  This  seems  evident  because  the 
31st  verse  introduces  a  reason  why  Christ  should  increase, 
as  it  says,  "He  that  cometh  from  above  is  above  all ;  he 
that  is  of  the  earth  is  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  earth  he 
speaketh ;  he  that  cometh  from  heaven  is  above  all." 
What  follows  is  in  exact  accord  with  what  Jesus  said  to 
Nicodemus,  and  is  an  expansion  of  what  John  the  Baptist 
had  said  of  Jesus  when  he  saw  him  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan  and  called  him  "the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world."  He  now  describes  him  as 
"He  whom  God  hath  sent,"  and  as  "the  Son  of  God,"  and 
he  adds,  "He  that  believeth  on  the  Son  hath  eternal  life ; 
but  he  that  obeyeth  not  the  Son,  the  wrath  of  God  abideth 
on  him." 

John  sounds  the  keynote  of  true  Christian  endeavor  in 
all  the  ages,  as  he  says,  with  cheerful,  trustful,  loving 
faith,  and  with  untainted  integrity,  "He  must  increase, 
but  I  must  decrease."    The  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles 


82    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

had  only  reached  the  same  height  of  loving  consecration, 
when  he  exclaimed,  "Christ  shall  be  magnified  in  my  body, 
whether  by  life,  or  by  death."  The  Forerunner  had  the 
spirit  of  the  kingdom  and  the  mind  of  the  Master,  for 
Jesus  said  of  himself,  "I  came,  not  to  do  my  own  will,  but 
the  will  of  him  that  sent  me." 

In  outward  appearance,  in  manner  of  living,  and  in 
methods  of  working,  John  the  Baptist  was  very  different 
from  his  Lord;  but,  when  we  look  through  the  coarse 
raiment  and  the  rugged  exterior,  we  find  in  John  the  same 
mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus.  He  was  preeminent  for 
his  unselfishness,  his  humility  and  his  holy  courage.  He 
recognized  the  great  truth  that  each  man  has  his  own  place 
and  his  own  part  in  the  outworkings  of  God's  holy  pur- 
poses, and  that  "a  man  can  receive  nothing  except  it  have 
been  given  him  from  heaven."  In  a  less  degree,  and  on 
a  lower  plane,  he  exhibited  the  mind  of  Jesus,  who  after- 
wards said  to  the  Father,  "Not  my  will  but  thine  be  done." 

True  disciples  may  differ  very  greatly  in  manner  of  life 
and  in  outward  appearance,  but  the  essential  mark  of 
discipleship  in  every  case  is  the  mind  of  Christ  Godward 
and  manward,  for,  "If  any  man  have  not  the  spirit  of 
Christ  he  is  none  of  his." 


XIV 
JESUS  IN  SAMARIA 

John  4 :  4.    "And  he  must  needs  pass  through  Samaria." 
(John  4:  1-42.) 

WHEN  Jesus  knew  that  the  Pharisees  had  heard 
that  he  was  making  and  baptizing  more  dis- 
ciples than  John,  he  left  Judea  and  went  to 
Galilee.  This  rumor  was  not  accurate,  for  Jesus  dis- 
ciples baptized,  but  he  did  not  baptize  any  one.  Why 
this  rumour  should  be  considered  a  sufficient  reason  for 
his  going  away  is  not  known.  He  might  have  gone  away 
in  order  to  prevent  odious  comparisons  that  would  em- 
phasize the  contrast  between  John's  decrease  and  his  own 
increase.  He  might  have  gone  because  he  knew  that  his 
presence  was  embarrassing  John  and  that  he  could  not 
help  him  in  any  way. 

He  was  on  the  borders  of  Samaria,  not  far  from  ^non, 
and  his  direct  route  to  Galilee  was  through  Samaria  ;  yet, 
the  evangelist  says,  "He  must  needs  pass  through  Sa- 
maria." The  expression  "must  needs"  did  not  refer  to 
any  geographical  necessity,  for  many  of  the  Jews,  on  ac- 
count of  their  hatred  and  distrust  of  the  Samaritans, 
went  to  Galilee  by  way  of  Perea.  Jesus  did  not  share 
either  this  hatred  or  this  fear,  for  he  knew  that  he  was 
as  safe  in  Samaria  as  he  was  in  Judea,  and  he  would  have 
gone  to  Galilee  by  way  of  Samaria  if  he  had  no  special 
reason  for  going  some  other  way.  The  words  of  the 
evangelist  "must  needs"  indicate  that  he  had  some  special 

83 


84    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

reason  for  going  through  Samaria,  and  this  reason  ap- 
pears afterwards. 

He  began  his  journey  early  in  the  morning,  for  about 
noon  he  came  to  a  city  of  Samaria  named  Sychar,  near 
to  the  parcel  of  ground  that  Jacob  gave  to  his  son  Joseph. 
The  exact  location  is  not  known,  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  town  now  called  Askar  is  the  Sychar  of  Christ's  day. 
If  so,  it  was  not  less  than  twenty  miles  from  the  nearest 
point  in  Judea,  and  about  two  miles  from  the  ancient 
Sychem  or  Shechem,  near  the  entrance  to  the  narrow  val- 
ley between  Mt.  Ebal  and  Mt.  Gerizim. 

Jacob's  well  was  not  far  from  the  village,  and,  when 
Jesus  came  to  the  well,  he  was  hungry,  thirsty  and  weary, 
and  rested  on  one  of  the  seats  by  the  well  while  his  dis- 
ciples went  to  the  village  to  buy  food.  All  his  surround- 
ings were  adapted  to  suggest  important  events  in  the  his- 
tory of  God's  people.  Twenty  centuries  before  the  Christ 
was  born,  Jacob  had  erected  an  altar  here  and  had  called 
it  Ebelohe-Israel.  In  this  neighborhood  the  cruel  and 
treacherous  sons  of  Jacob,  using  a  religious  rite  as  a 
snare,  had  murdered  the  Sheckemites.  On  the  sides  of 
Mt.  Ebal  and  Mt.  Gerizim,  after  the  capture  of  Ai. 
Joshua  had  assembled  all  Israel  and,  with  impressive  em- 
phasis, had  read  the  law  of  the  Lord.  Here,  also,  he 
afterwards  assembled  all  the  leaders  of  Israel  and,  hav- 
ing delivered  his  farewell  address,  set  up  a  great  stone 
under  an  oak  as  a  sign  of  Israel's  solemn  covenant  to 
serve  Jehovah. 

As  Jesus  sat  by  the  well  of  Jacob  his  solitude  was  in- 
terrupted by  the  coming  of  a  Samaritan  woman  to  draw 
water  from  the  well.  He  said  to  the  woman,  "Give  me 
to  drink."  The  woman  replied,  "How  is  it  that  thou,  be- 
ing a  Jew,  askest  drink  of  me  who  am  a  Samaritan 
woman?"     To  this  flippant,  ungracious  retort  Jesus  re- 


JESUS  IN  SAMARIA  85 

plied,  "If  thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God,  and  who  it  is  that 
saith  to  thee,  Give  me  to  drink,  thou  wouldst  have  asked 
of  him,  and  he  would  have  given  thee  living  water."  The 
woman  did  not  perceive  the  deeper  meaning  of  Christ's 
words  and  replied,  "Thou  hast  nothing  to  draw  with  and 
the  well  is  deep ;  from  whence  then  hast  thou  that  living 
water  ?"  There  was,  however,  something  that  impressed 
her,  for  she  added,  "Art  thou  greater  than  our  father 
Jacob  who  gave  us  the  well  and  drank  thereof  himself?" 
She  evidently  knew  that  Jesus  did  not  mean  that  he  would 
merely  give  her  water  from  this  well.  There  was  rever- 
ence as  well  as  objection  in  the  question,  "Art  thou  great- 
er than  our  father  Jacob?"  Jesus  replied,  "Every  one 
that  drinketh  of  this  water  shall  thirst  again,  but  whoso- 
ever shall  drink  of  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him,  shall 
never  thirst ;  but  the  water  that  I  shall  give  him,  shall  be- 
come in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  eternal 
life."  This  was  equivalent  to  saying  "Yes  I  am  greater 
than  our  father  Jacob,  for  he  that  drinks  of  the  living 
waters  that  I  shall  give  shall  never  thirst." 

The  woman  seemed  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  profound 
meaning  of  our  Lord's  words,  for,  dropping  the  boastful, 
flippant  manner  with  which  she  had  begun  the  conversa- 
tion, she  became  a  humble,  earnest  suppliant,  and  ex- 
claimed, "Sir,  give  me  this  water,  that  I  thirst  not,  neither 
come  all  the  way  hither  to  draw."  She  knew  now  that 
Jesus  was  speaking  of  greater  things  than  physical  thirst 
and  material  water.  Her  earnest  words  indicate  obscure 
spiritual  vision,  but  they  reveal  some  sense  of  need,  some 
spiritual  soul-thirst  that  was  crying  out  for  help. 

Jesus'  answer  to  this  ardent  request  seemed  like  a  re- 
fusal and  a  desire  to  change  the  subject,  for  he  said  to  the 
woman,  "Go  call  thy  husband  and  come  hither."  This 
seemed  like  a  suggestion  that  it  was  not  becoming  that 


86    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

she  should  converse  alone  with  a  stranger,  and,  accord- 
ing to  prevailing  social  custom,  that  was  true.  But  the 
words  meant  far  more.  They  touched  her  conscience, 
and  she  answered,  "I  have  no  husband."  Her  answer 
was  true,  but  it  was  only  part  of  the  truth,  and,  in  order 
to  reveal  her  to  herself,  Jesus  answered,  "Thou  hast  well 
said,  I  have  no  husband.  For  thou  hast  had  five  hus- 
bands, and  he  whom  thou  now  hast  is  not  thy  husband ;  in 
that  thou  saidst  truly." 

These  words  were  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  searching 
her  heart  and  quickening  her  conscience.  When  Jesus 
first  met  Nathanael  he  said,  "Behold  an  Israelite  indeed 
in  whom  there  is  no  guile,"  and,  when  he  explained  that 
he  had  seen  him  under  the  fig  tree,  he  touched  some  great 
secret  in  Nathanael's  life.  When  he  first  met  this  woman 
he  touched  the  secret  of  her  life,  and  her  conscience,  and 
she  said,  "I  perceive  that  thou  art  a  prophet." 

We  might  have  expected  the  woman  to  ask  one  whom 
she  recognized  as  a  prophet  some  personal  questions  that 
directly  concerned  her  own  sinfulness  and  its  remedy,  but, 
like  many  others,  she  found  it  easier  to  take  up  a  mooted 
question  concerning  religious  worship  than  to  face  the 
ugly  facts  in  her  own  life,  and  she  said  to  Jesus,  "Our 
fathers  worshipped  in  this  mountain,  and  ye  say  that  in 
Jerusalem  is  the  place  where  men  ought  to  worship." 
Jesus  answered  her  question  as  patiently  and  as  kindly  as 
he  would  have  answered  a  question  of  Nicodemus,  say- 
ing, "Woman,  believe  me,  the  hour  cometh,  when  neither 
in  this  mountain,  nor  in  Jerusalem,  shall  ye  worship  the 
Father." 

They  were  under  the  shadow  of  Mt.  Gerizim,  the 
mountain  on  which  this  woman  believed  that  Abraham 
had  offered  up  Isaac.  Jesus  would  not  rudely  shock  her 
religious  beliefs;    but  he  would  correct  them,  and  he 


JESUS  IN  SAMARIA       '  87 

added,  "Ye  worship  that  which  ye  know  not;  we  wor- 
ship that  which  we  know;  for  salvation  is  of  the  Jews; 
but  the  hour  cometh,  and  now  is,  when  the  true  wor- 
shippers shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and  truth ;  for 
such  doth  the  Father  seek  to  be  his  worshippers.  God 
is  a  Spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him  must  worship  in 
spirit  and  truth." 

This  was  a  complete  answer  to  her  question.  It  re- 
vealed the  folly  of  thinking  that  any  outward  form  or 
any  particular  place  of  worship  could  render  the  worship 
acceptable  to  God  or  profitable  to  the  worshipper  if  there 
were  not  true,  hearty,  spiritual  devotion.  The  woman 
seemed  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  profound  significance  of 
our  Lord's  words,  and  revealed  her  sense  of  need,  coupled 
with  a  vague  hope,  as  she  said,  "I  know  that  Messiah 
cometh  (who  is  called  Christ)  when  he  is  come  he  will 
tell  us  all  things."  To  this  Samaritan  confession  of  a 
Messianic  hope,  Jesus  replied,  "I  that  speak  to  thee  am 
he." 

At  this  point  the  disciples  returned  with  food,  and  they 
marveled  that  their  Master  was,  not  only  talking  with  a 
Samaritan  woman,  but  that  he  was  so  deeply  interested 
in  his  conversation  with  her  that  he  did  not  notice  their 
return. 

They  did  not,  however,  interrupt  the  conversation,  but 
after  the  woman  had  gone,  they  said,  "Rabbi  eat."  As 
if  awakening  from  self  communion,  he  answered,  "I  have 
meat  to  eat  that  ye  know  not."  These  words  added  to 
the  astonishment  of  the  disciples,  and  they  said  one  to 
another,  "Hath  any  man  brought  him  ought  to  eat?" 
But  he  replied,  "My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  him  that 
sent  me,  and  to  accomplish  his  work." 

Here  is  the  explanation  of  the  words  of  the  evangelist 
as  he  wrote,  "He  must  needs  pass  through  Samaria." 


88    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Here  was  a  work  that  was  more  to  him  than  food  or 
drink.  He  must  needs  pass  through  Samaria  in  order  to 
reveal  to  this  woman  the  gift  of  God.  He  came  this  way 
that  he  might  make  himself  known  to  a  Samaritan  woman 
as  the  promised  Messiah. 

When  Jesus  was  twelve  years  of  age,  at  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem,  he  said  to  his  mother,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I  must 
be  about  my  Father's  business  ?"  Now,  after  he  had  en- 
tered upon  his  life  work,  he  declared  that  the  doing  of 
the  will  of  him  that  sent  him  was  more  important  than 
hunger  or  thirst  or  meat. 

Jesus  then  reminded  his  disciples  of  the  saying,  "There 
are  yet  four  months  and  then  cometh  the  harvest,"  and 
he  added,  "Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields,  that 
they  are  white  already  unto  the  harvest."  The  great 
spiritual  harvest  field  of  Samaria  was  ready  to  be  reaped, 
and  the  reapers  who  would  gather  the  fruit  unto  eternal 
life  would  receive  wages,  and  there  was  no  necessity  for 
waiting  four  months. 

This  was  the  first  preaching  of  the  gospel  in  Samaria. 
When  our  Lord  began  his  ministry  at  Jerusalem,  by 
cleansing  the  temple  and  talking  so  plainly  to  Nicodemus, 
he  was  not  guided  by  what  men  called  worldly  wisdom. 
Shrewd  men  of  the  world  could  say  that  he  was  not  tact- 
ful, prudent  and  diplomatic,  that  he  did  not  understand 
human  nature ;  nevertheless,  worldly  wisdom  could  see 
good  reasons  for  Christ's  talking  to  Nicodemus  about  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  for  Nicodemus  was  a  ruler  of  the  Jews, 
and  he  had  influence ;  but  what  can  worldly  wisdom  say 
of  Christ's  method  of  revealing  his  Messianic  claims  to 
the  Samaritans  ?  Worldly  wisdom  would  have  organized 
a  committee  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the  City  of  Sa- 
maria, and  would  have  announced  before-hand  the  char- 
acter and  the  claims  of  the  Coming  One.     Jesus,  hungry. 


JESUS  IN  SAMARIA  89 

thirsty  and  weary,  at  Jacob's  well,  entered  into  conversa- 
tion with  a  sinful  woman,  and  before  that  conversation 
ended  he  had  revealed  to  her  the  most  profound  spiritual 
truths  and  had  announced  himself  as  the  Messiah.  By 
this  act  he  made  this  woman  his  representative  to  the 
Samaritan  people.  Could  any  one  imagine  anything 
more  unwise?  Would  not  the  reputation  of  this  woman 
add  to  Samaritan  prejudice  against  a  Jewish  teacher  of 
religion?  Did  he  not  place  an  obstacle  in  the  path  of 
others  by  making  this  Samaritan  woman  his  first  convert 
and  representative  to  the  Samaritan  people? 

In  reply,  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that  the  wisdom  of 
God,  the  wisdom  from  above,  is  essentially  different  from 
mere  worldly  wisdom.  God  sees  the  heart,  and  Jesus, 
with  his  divine  wisdom,  had  as  good  reason  for  talking 
with  this  woman  and  revealing  himself  to  her  as  he  had 
for  talking  to  Nicodemus  or  any  other  correct  and  reputa- 
ble ruler  of  the  Jews.  It  was  as  important  that  she  should 
be  born  again,  that  she  should  be  able  to  offer  to  God 
spiritual  worship,  as  it  was  that  Nicodemus  should  see 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Christ  came  to  call  sinners  to  re- 
pentance; he  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  and  his 
method  of  proclaiming  himself  to  the  Samaritans  was 
not  essentially  different  from  the  general  course  of  life 
that  afterwards  led  to  his  being  called  "a  friend  of  pub- 
licans and  sinners." 

It  should  be  said,  also,  that  the  results  approved  the 
wisdom  of  our  Lord's  method.  The  woman  did  not  hesi- 
tate and  count  the  cost  of  professing  her  faith.  She  for- 
got her  errand  to  the  well ;  and,  leaving  her  water  pot, 
went  to  the  city,  and  said  to  the  men  of  the  city,  "Come, 
see  a  man,  who  told  me  all  things  that  ever  I  did.  Is  not 
this  the  Christ?"  She  was  the  best  example  of  courage 
and  enthusiasm  that  had  yet  appeared.     Philip  had  found 


90    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

his  friend  Nathanael ;  Andrew  had  found  his  brother 
Peter,  but  all  were  Jews.  This  woman  came  to  a  great 
multitude  of  Samaritans  and  she  asked  them  to  recognize 
a  Jew,  a  hereditary  enemy  of  their  nation,  as  the  long 
looked  for  Messiah.  Her  intense  earnestness  and  en- 
thusiasm were  most  persuasive  and  most  convincing,  for 
many  of  those  who  heard  her  believed  on  Christ  because 
of  her  words,  while  many  others,  after  they  had  seen  and 
talked  with  Jesus,  said  to  the  woman,  "Now  we  believe, 
not  because  of  thy  speaking,  for  we  have  heard  for  our- 
selves, and  know  that  this  is  indeed  the  Saviour  of  the 
world." 

In  this  beautiful  sketch,  there  is  something  that  is 
adapted  to  touch  the  tenderest  cords  in  the  human  heart, 
something  that  so  commends  the  love  of  God  as  to  make 
it  omnipotent.  In  this  sketch  there  is  a  lesson  for  all 
who  would  win  men  to  Christ.  God  hath  chosen  the 
weak  things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  mighty.  When 
we  see  the  Son  of  God,  hungry,  thirsty  and  weary  so 
deeply  interested  in  the  salvation  of  this  one  sinful  woman 
as  to  forget  hunger  and  thirst,  we  may  learn  how  we 
should  strive  to  carry  out  the  great  commission  and  preach 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 


XV 
JESUS  REJECTED  AT  NAZARETH 

John  4 :  44.  "For  Jesus  himself  testified,  that  a  prophet  hath 
no  honor  in  his  own  country." 

(Matthew  4:  12-17  and  13:  53-58  and  14:  3;  Mark  1:14-15;  6: 
1-6;   Luke  3:  19-20  and  4:  14-20;  John  4:  43-54.) 

AFTER  the  incident  at  Sychar  Jesus  visited  his  old 
home  at  Nazareth,  but  it  seems  nearly  impossible 
to  determine  the  exact  time  when  this  visit  was 
made.  The  older  writers,  not  being  able  to  harmonize 
the  different  accounts,  concluded  that  Jesus  must  have 
visited  Nazareth  twice  during  his  public  ministry,  but  later 
writers  reject  this  theory  as  inconsistent  and  impossible. 
It  may  not  be  amiss  to  stop  here  long  enough  to  come 
to  some  definite  conclusion  concerning  the  attempts  to 
harmonize  the  gospels.  From  the  time  of  Eusebius  un- 
til the  present,  Bible  students  have  sought  to  form  a  con- 
nected account  of  our  Saviour's  life  out  of  the  different 
gospels,  and  have  not  succeeded.  The  evangelists  seem 
to  have  constructed  their  narratives  without  special  re- 
gard to  the  chronological  order  of  events.  They  begin 
their  sketches  with  an  account  of  the  birth  of  Christ,  and 
they  end  with  an  account  of  his  death,  but  the  intervening 
events  of  his  life  are  presented  with  very  little  reference 
to  time.  From  the  time  of  the  temptation  until  the  last 
journey  to  Jerusalem,  Matthew  passes  from  one  event 
to  another  without  giving  any  clue  to  the  exact  time,  ex- 
cept the  expression  "then,"  or,  "in  those  days."  He  aims 
to  present  the  character  of  Jesus,  apart  from  time  and 

91 


92    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

place,  by  grouping  kindred  actions  and  discourses.  Mark 
seems  to  aim  at  a  vivid  presentation  of  some  facts  in 
our  Lord's  life  without  seeking  to  show  how  these  facts 
are  related  to  each  other.  Luke  has  more  regard  for  the 
chronological  order  of  events,  but  he  is  some  times  very 
indefinite;  and  John  confines  himself,  for  the  most  part, 
to  a  sketch  of  the  Judean  ministry. 

Recognizing  these  evident  facts,  we  should  not  expect 
to  be  able  to  form  a  perfect  harmony,  but  we  need  not  be 
surprised  nor  discouraged  by  our  failure  to  do  so.  What 
once  seemed  a  hindrance  to  faith,  has  come  to  be  recog- 
nized as  a  help.  The  fact  that  we  cannot  always  know 
just  how  to  harmonize  the  four  gospels  proves  conclu- 
sively that  the  writers  were  not  in  collusion ;  that  the  four 
gospels  are  independent  sketches  of  the  person  and  work 
of  Christ  and  that  they  can,  therefore,  be  used  to  explain 
and  confirm  each  other. 

A  careful  study  and  comparison  of  all  the  gospel  nar- 
ratives warrants  the  inference  that  Jesus  only  visited 
Nazareth  once  during  his  public  ministry,  and  that  this 
visit  took  place  not  long  after  the  event  at  Sychar.  He 
did  not,  however,  go  directly  from  Sychar  to  Nazareth, 
but  journeyed  from  place  to  place,  teaching  and  showing 
signs  or  performing  miracles  at  different  places.  The 
healing  of  the  nobleman's  son  at  Capernaum,  recorded  in 
the  Gospel  by  John  (4 :  46-54)  probably  occurred  on  this 
journey. 

After  saying  that  Jesus  spent  two  days  with  the  Sa- 
maritans who  besought  him  to  abide  with  them,  John 
says,  "He  went  forth  from  thence  into  Galilee,"  and  he 
adds,  "For  Jesus  himself  testified  that  a  prophet  hath  no 
honour  in  his  own  country." 

If  John  had  said  no  more  than  this  it  might  have  been 
inferred  that  Jesus  was  intentionally  going  from   Sa- 


JESUS  REJECTED  AT  NAZARETH  93 

maria,  not  his  own  country,  and  where  he  had  honour, 
to  Gahlee,  his  own  country,  where  he  would  have  no 
honour.  But  John  goes  on  to  say,  "The  Galileans  re- 
ceived him,  having  seen  all  the  things  that  he  did  at  Jeru- 
salem." It  seems  evident,  therefore,  that  John  is,  not 
speaking  merely  of  our  Lord's  visit  to  Nazareth,  but  of 
his  going  to  other  points  in  Galilee,  and  when  he  speaks 
of  the  Galileans  receiving  him,  he  refers  to  what  took 
place  before  the  visit  to  Nazareth. 

Assuming  this  to  be  true,  and  following  John's  narra- 
tive, Jesus  came  a  second  time  to  Cana,  where  a  noble- 
man from  Cana  came  to  him  and  besought  him  to  come  to 
Capernaum  and  heal  his  son  who  was  lying  at  the  point 
of  death.  Instead  of  granting  this  request  at  once,  Jesus 
said,  "Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  in  no 
wise  believe."  The  nobleman  urged  him,  saying,  "Sir, 
come  down  ere  my  child  die."  To  this  second  appeal 
Jesus  replied,  "Go  thy  way,  thy  son  liveth."  The  noble- 
man believed  Jesus  and  went  his  way,  and,  as  he  was  go- 
ing, his  servants  met  him  with  the  news  that  his  son  was 
living,  and  that  the  fever  left  him  at  the  very  hour  when 
Jesus  had  said,  "Thy  son  liveth."  John  then  adds  that 
the  nobleman  and  all  his  house  believed  on  Jesus.  He 
tells  us  also  that  this  was  the  second  sign  that  Jesus  had 
performed  after  coming  out  of  Judea  into  Galilee. 

Luke  gives  the  most  complete  account  of  what  took 
place  at  Nazareth.  After  saying  that  Jesus  returned  in 
the  power  of  the  Spirit  to  Galilee,  and  that  his  fame  went 
out  through  all  that  region,  and  that  he  taught  in  the 
synagogue  being  glorified  by  all,  Luke  adds,  "He  came  to 
Nazareth,  where  he  had  been  brought  up  and  he  entered, 
as  his  custom  was,  into  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
and  stood  up  to  read." 


94    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

The  synagogue  was  to  the  Jews  what  the  Christian 
"church"  or  "meeting  house"  is  to  the  Christian.  It  was 
the  place  for  reading  and  expounding  the  sacred  Scrip- 
tures on  the  Sabbath  day  and  for  public  prayer.  There 
were  no  ordained  ministers  to  conduct  the  services  and 
Scripture  lessons,  one  from  the  law  and  the  other  from 
the  prophets,  might  be  read  by  any  capable  person  selected 
for  the  purpose  by  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue.  The 
reader  stood  while  reading  and,  if  he  added  comments  or 
expositions,  he  saf  while  speaking.  The  expression,  "as 
his  custom  was,"  may  refer  to  what  Jesus  was  accus- 
tomed to  do  when  he  dwelt  in  Nazareth  before  he  began 
his  public  ministry. 

When  Jesus  stood  up  to  read  on  this  occasion  it  was 
probably  the  time  for  the  second  lesson,  and  he  was  given 
the  roll  of  the  Prophet  Isaiah.  He  opened  the  roll,  and 
found  the  place  where  it  is  written,  (Isaiah  6i :  1-2). 

"The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me, 
Because  he  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor; 
He  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives, 
And  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
To  set  at  liberty  those  who  are  bruised 
To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 

The  usual  lesson  was  from  three  to  twenty-one  verses, 
but  Christ  probably  only  read  the  two  quoted  by  the  evan- 
gelist and  then  sat  down.  It  was  an  impressive  moment, 
and  the  brevity  of  the  lesson  added  to  the  rapt  attention 
with  which  the  congregation  regarded  Jesus  when  he 
began  his  discourse,  saying,  "To-day  hath  this  Scripture 
been  fulfilled  in  your  ears." 

As  they  listened  all  seemed  to  be  deeply  interested  and 
most  favorably  impressed,  for  "they  wondered  at  the 
words  of  grace  that  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth."    This 


JESUS  REJECTED  AT  NAZARETH  95 

favorable  impression,  however,  soon  began  to  take  the 
form  of  critical  questioning,  and  they  said  one  to  an- 
other, "Is  not  this  the  Son  of  Mary  and  brother  of  James 
and  Joses  and  Judas  and  Simon?  And  are  not  his  sis- 
ters here  with  us?"  When  Jesus  perceived  this  change 
of  sentiment  he  said,  "Doubtless  ye  will  say  unto  me  this 
parable,  Physician,  heal  thyself;  whatsoever  we  have 
heard  done  in  Capernaum,  do  also  here  in  thine  own  coun- 
try." 

These  words  seem  to  refer  to  the  motives  that  were 
prompting  those  who  were  objecting  to  him.  They  were 
saying  within  themselves  that  if  he  performed  as  great 
miracles  as  had  been  reported,  if  he  turned  water  into 
wine  at  Cana,  and  healed  the  nobleman's  son  at  Caperna- 
um, how  is  it  that  he  is  only  a  carpenter,  and  that  his 
mother  is  poor  ?  Why  is  he  not  doing  something  for  him- 
self and  his  family?  Why  does  not  the  physician  heal 
himself  by  making  himself  and  his  family  rich  and  pow- 
erful? 

If  Jesus  had  commanded  stones  to  become  bread ;  if  he 
had  turned  rocks  into  precious  gems  and  transformed  his 
mother's  humble  home  into  a  costly  and  stately  palace; 
if  he  had  used  his  supernatural  powers  to  enrich  and  exalt 
himself  and  his  family,  he  would  have  had  honour  in  his 
own  country.  Men  are  greatly  honoured  in  their  own 
towns  and  among  their  own  kindred  when  they  succeed 
in  accumulating  great  wealth,  or  attain  high  worldly 
honours,  and  then  use  their  worldly  honours  and  influ- 
ence to  enrich  and  exalt  their  own  families  and  acquaint- 
ances. If  Jesus  had  exerted  his  marvelous  powers  to 
enrich  and  exalt  himself,  if  he  had  ministered  to  the 
covetousness  and  ambition  of  his  family  and  neighbours 
in  Nazareth,  he  would  have  been  honoured  in  his  own 
country.     Self  sacrifice   for  others   does   not  give  one 


96    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

honor  in  his  own  country  or  amongst  his  own  kindred  and 
neighbours,  especially  if  he  ask  them  to  share  his  self 
secrifice. 

When  the  wonder  and  enthusiasm  with  which  all 
listened  to  the  marvelous  words  that  first  fell  from  the 
Master's  lips  began  to  give  place  to  the  thought  that  this 
was  only  the  carpenter,  and  that  they  knew  all  about  his 
family ;  when  they  began  to  demand  some  such  signs  as 
had  been  reported  from  Capernaum  and  elsewhere,  he 
said,  "No  prophet  is  acceptable  in  his  own  country." 
Then  he  reminded  them  of  the  fact  that  the  prophet 
Elijah  had  not  been  sent  to  any  of  the  many  widows  in 
Israel,  but  that  he  had  been  sent  to  a  widow  dwelling  in 
Zarephath,  in  the  land  of  Sidon.  He  also  reminded  them 
that  Elisha  had  not  healed  any  one  of  the  many  lepers  in 
Israel,  but  that  he  had  healed  Naaman,  the  Syrian. 

This  reference  to  what  had  been  done  by  Elijah  and 
Elisha  for  a  Sidonian  and  a  Syrian,  and  not  for  suf- 
ferers of  their  own  nation,  seems  to  be  given  as  an  ex- 
planation of  and  a  reason  for  Jesus'  treatment  of  the 
citizens  of  Nazareth.  It  so  enraged  his  audience  that  they 
cast  him  forth  out  of  the  synagogue  and  led  him  to  the 
brow  of  the  hill  on  which  the  city  was  built  that  they 
might  cast  him  down  headlong.  They,  not  only  rejected 
him,  but  they  were  so  filled  with  wrath  against  him  that 
they  wished  to  kill  him. 

How  can  this  sudden  and  complete  change  in  senti- 
ment that  has  transformed  a  company  of  worshippers  into 
a  den  of  wild  beasts  be  explained?  What  has  Jesus 
done  to  bring  about  such  a  change  in  the  sentiments  of  his 
audience?  He  has  read  two  verses  from  the  Prophecy  of 
Isaiah  and  has  said  that  the  prophecy  was  fulfilled  in 
himself.  He  has  refused  to  perform  miracles  and  has 
called  attention  to  what  two  of  their  prophets  had  done 
in  the  olden  times. 


JESUS  REJECTED  AT  NAZARETH  97 

If  these  facts  do  not  seem  to  furnish  any  rational  ex- 
cuse for,  or  any  explanation  of,  the  sudden  change  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  of  Nazareth,  we  may  give  a  super- 
natural explanation ;  we  may  say  that  Satan  entered  into 
the  hearts  of  these  people,  and  that  their  mad  rage  again 
the  Lord's  anointed  was  the  direct  result  of  the  presence 
of  the  evil  one.  In  Job's  day,  when  the  sons  of  God 
came  to  present  themselves  before  the  Lord,  Satan  came 
also  among  them,  for  he  wished  to  destroy  Job.  He  had 
greater  reason  for  being  present  with  the  congregation 
at  Nazareth  when  Jesus,  the  Christ,  had  refused  his  offers 
and  was  proclaiming  himself  the  Lord's  anointed. 

In  the  same  way  it  may  be  explained  that  Jesus'  escape 
at  this  time  was  a  miracle  wrought  to  protect  his  life 
until  he  had  performed  his  work. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  inspired  narratives  of  this  event 
do  not  require  us  to  seek  any  supernatural  explanation 
and  it  may  need  no  other  explanation  than  that  of  the 
foolishness  and  fickleness  of  an  ordinary  congregation. 
At  the  beginning  of  our  Lord's  discourse,  the  audience 
recognized  him  as  one  of  their  own  people;  they  were 
vain  of  the  reputation  he  had  gained  for  himself  and 
for  his  town,  and  they  were  filled  with  enthusiasm  by  his 
gracious  words.  But  he  touched  their  selfish  pride  when 
he  claimed  for  himself  the  superior  position  of  the  Lord's 
anointed,  and  refused  to  do  for  them  what  he  had  done 
for  others.  He  aroused  their  strong  national  prejudices 
and  turned  their  intense  enthusiasm  into  wrathful  indig- 
nation, so  that  they  became  an  angry  mob  and  were 
capable  of  committing  any  crime. 

Whatever  the  explanation  Jesus  marvelled  at  their 
unbelief,  and  taking  advantage  of  their  confusion,  he 
passed  through  the  midst  of  them  and  went  his  way. 


98    JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

The  people  of  Nazareth  had  rejected  and  would  have 
slain  the  Christ.  They  did  not  know  the  day  of  their 
visitation.  They  did  not  seize  their  opportunity,  and 
Jesus  never  again  came  to  Nazareth.  How  shall  we  ex- 
plain the  difference  between  this  reception  and  his  recep- 
tion by  the  Samaritans  who  had  besought  him  to  tarry 
with  them  ?  Possibly  in  this  way.  The  Samaritan  woman 
was  waiting  and  longing  for  the  Christ  who  would  reveal 
all  spiritual  truths  and  satisfy  all  spiritual  soul  thirst  or 
desire,  and  the  seed  of  the  Gospel  fell  into  good  soil  when 
it  fell  into  her  heart.  The  people  of  Nazareth,  on  the 
other  hand,  were  waiting  for  some  miracle  worker  who 
would  minister  to  their  selfish  pride  by  restoring  their 
material  kingdom  and  advancing  their  worldly  interests, 
and,  when  Jesus  preached  to  them,  the  good  seed  fell 
upon  the  barren  rock  of  selfishness. 


XVI 
FIRST  SABBATH  IN  CAPERNAUM 

Luke  4:31-32.  "And  he  came  down  to  Capernaum,  a  city  of 
Galilee.  And  he  was  teaching  them  on  the  Sabbath  day;  and 
they  were  astonished  at  his  teaching;  for  his  word  was  with 
authority." 

(Matthew  4:  13-18;    Mark  1:21-34;   Luke  4:  3I-4I-) 

WHEN  Jesus  was  rejected  at  Nazareth  he  came 
to  Capernaum,  and  it  was  known  afterwards 
as  "his  own  city"  (Mat.  9:1).  In  order  to 
have  a  correct  knowledge  of  this  history  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind  that  Jesus  had,  up  to  this  time,  only  five  dis- 
ciples. Three  of  these  disciples,  Peter,  John  and  Andrew, 
lived  in  Capernaum;  Philip  lived  in  Bethsaida,  and 
Nathanael  in  Cana.  It  is  probable  that  these  five  disciples, 
who  had  been  with  him  when  he  was  in  Judea  and  in 
Samaria,  did  not  go  with  him  to  Nazareth,  but  went  to 
their  homes,  while  he  went  to  his  home.  His  mother  and 
other  members  of  his  family  either  left  Nazareth  with 
him  after  he  escaped  from  the  angry  mob,  or  followed 
him  afterwards,  for,  when  they  are  again  mentioned  by 
the  evangelist,  they  are  at  Capernaum. 

Jesus'  distress  on  account  of  being  driven  from  his 
home  would  be  greatly  intensified  by  the  thought  that  his 
mother  and  kindred  would  suffer  with  him  and  on  his 
account.  Luke  does  not  attempt  to  describe  the  emotions 
of  Jesus  as  he  escaped  from  his  enemies  and  took  his 
last  look  at  the  many  hallowed  associations  of  his  youth 

99 


i(X)  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  early  manhood.  He  does,  however,  present  a  striking 
contrast,  when  he  tells  of  the  intense  wrath  of  the  people 
as  they  cast  Jesus  forth  from  the  synagogue  and  attempted 
to  hurl  him  from  the  precipice  or  brow  of  the  hill,  and 
then  adds,  "but  he  passing  through  the  midst  of  them 
went  his  way."  The  people  were  mad  with  rage,  but 
Jesus  seemed  the  embodiment  of  peace,  the  peace  of  God 
that  could  not  be  disturbed. 

Whether  Jesus  went  directly  from  Nazareth  to  Caper- 
naum is  uncertain,  but  Luke's  words,  "he  came  down  to 
Capernaum,"  indicate  that  he  did  not  stop  on  the  way  at 
Cana  or  elsewhere,  but  spent  the  next  Sabbath  in  the 
synagogue  at  Capernaum. 

Capernaum  was  less  than  twenty  miles  from  Nazareth 
and  reports  of  what  had  taken  place  at  Nazareth  would 
interest  the  people  at  Capernaum  and  would  attract  a 
large  congregation.  Some  of  Christ's  disciples  lived  in 
Capernaum,  and  the  nobleman,  whose  son  he  had  healed, 
dwelt  there,  and  he  may  have  had  other  friends  and  ac- 
quaintances in  the  place.  These  facts  explain  his  being 
invited  to  act  as  a  teacher  in  the  synagogue  on  the  Sab- 
bath. The  people  heard  with  astonishment  and  with  ap- 
proval, "for  he  taught  them  as  having  authority,  and  not 
as  the  Scribes."  It  was  not  a  formal,  perfunctory  service. 
His  words  aroused,  convinced  and  controlled  his  hearers, 
and  they  realized  that  truth  was  not  a  dead  letter  but  a 
living  power. 

There  was  in  the  synagogue  that  morning  a  demoniac 
possessed  by  an  unclean  demon,  and  he  cried  out  with  a 
loud  voice,  "Ah !  what  have  we  to  do  with  thee,  thou 
Jesus  of  Nazareth?  Art  thou  come  to  destroy  us?  I 
know  thee  who  thou  art,  the  Holy  One  of  God." 

It  requires  no  effort  of  the  imagination  to  picture  this 
scene.     The  congregation  were  intensely  interested  in 


FIRST  SABBATH  IN  CAPERNAUM         loi 

what  Jesus  was  saying.  All  their  emotions  had  been 
stirred  by  him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake.  As  they 
listened  with  rapt  attention  to  the  living  truths  and 
breathing  words  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  Great 
Teacher,  this  cry  of  the  demoniac  would  produce  more 
than  an  electric  shock  and  would  test  the  strongest  nerves. 
Before  the  excitement  could  manifest  itself,  except  by 
breathless  silence,  Jesus  answere'd  the  demoniac's  cry  and, 
recognizing  a  dual  personality,  distinguishing  the  man 
from  the  demon  that  possessed  him,  said  to  the  demon, 
"Hold  thy  peace  and  come  out  of  him."  The  demon 
obeyed,  and,  when  he  had  thrown  the  man  down,  he  came 
out  of  him,  leaving  the  man  unharmed.  This  turned  the 
excitement  into  awe  and  amazement  and  the  people  began 
to  say  one  to  another,  "What  is  this  word?  for  with 
authority  he  commandeth  the  unclean  spirits  and  they 
come  out." 

In  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth  the  people  sought  for 
signs  and  did  not  get  them,  but  in  the  synagogue  at 
Capernaum,  where  the  congregation  were  so  interested  in 
the  Master's  words  as  to  not  think  of  signs,  he  gave  this 
evidence  of  supernatural  power,  and  his  fame  went  abroad 
throughout  all  that  part  of  Galilee. 

This  first  account  of  Christ's  casting  out  a  demon  or 
evil  spirit  suggests  the  following  questions :  What  is  the 
meaning  of  the  word  daimon,  when  it  is  used  in  the  Scrip- 
tures ?  Wherein  does  the  demoniac,  or  one  possessed  by 
the  demon  differ  from  one  who  is  merely  insane?  Do 
men  in  this  age  have  such  demons  or  evil  spirits  as  pos- 
sessed this  man  whom  Christ  healed  in  the  synagogue  at 
Capernaum  ? 

These  are  hard  questions,  and  neither  the  physiologist 
nor  the  psychologist  can  give  any  satisfactory  answer.  All 
that  the  wisest  can  do  at  present  is  to  humbly  use  the  light 


102  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  the  Scriptures  throw  on  these  dark  problems.  Be- 
tween the  material  and  the  spiritual  world,  between  the 
physical,  mental  and  spiritual  realms  there  lies  a  dark  and 
unexplored  region  into  which  no  ray  from  the  lamp  of 
science  has  ever  penetrated ;  and,  when  we  stand  on  the 
borders  of  this  unknown  land,  we  can  but  realize  that  there 
are  things  between  heaven  and  earth  that  are  not  dreamed 
of  in  our  philosophy.  How  disembodied  spirits  can  in- 
fluence men  and  women  while  there  are  living  in  this 
world,  no  one  can  say  with  absolute  certainty;  nor  can 
the  wisest  express  more  than  his  own  opinion  when  he 
asserts  that  the  daimon  of  Christ's  day  was,  or  was  not, 
essentially  different  from  anything  that  exists  amongst 
men  in  these  days. 

When  we  turn  to  the  Bible  for  light  we  find  a  very 
definite  revelation  of  two  kingdoms  in  this  world,  a  king- 
dom of  light  and  a  kingdom  of  darkness,  a  kingdom  of 
God  and  a  kingdom  of  Satan.  For  the  establishing  of  his 
kingdom,  God  sent  forth  his  own  Son,  the  Prince  of 
Peace,  and  he  sent  also  his  angels  as  ministering  spirits  to 
minister  to  his  people.  The  prince  of  darkness  also  sends 
his  angels  or  evil  spirits,  and,  either  individually  or  in 
legions,  they  seek  the  injury  and  destruction  of  men.  This 
idea  of  demons  or  evil  spirits  did  not  come  into  Jewish 
thought  from  their  contact  with  polytheistic  nations.  It 
has  a  prominent  place  in  the  first  book  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in-the  story  of  man's  fall  through  temptation  by  the 
serpent.  It  had  its  fullest  development  in  the  time  when 
Jesus  Christ  was  on  the  earth.  More  clearly  and  more 
constantly  than  any  other  teacher  of  religion,  Jesus 
recognized  the  existence  and  power  of  Satan  and  of  sub- 
ordinate evil  spirits.  There  had  not  been  so  great  mani- 
festation of  the  presence  and  power  of  evil  spirits  before 
Christ's  coming  as  there  was  when  he  was  in  the  world 


FIRST  SABBATH  IN  CAPERNAUM         103 

and  there  has  not  been  so  great  manifestation  since  that 
time.  That  was  the  time  when  the  powers  of  good  and 
evil  met  in  this  world  as  they  never  had  met  before  in  all 
this  world's  history.  No  one  can  read  the  New  Testament 
intelligently  and  believingly  without  coming  to  the  con- 
clusion that  there  was  an  essential  difference  between  one 
who  was  possessed  by  a  demon  and  one  who  was  suffering 
from  any  mere  physical  or  mental  disease,  or  from  a 
combination  of  physical  and  mental  diseases.  Demoni- 
acs were  essentially  different  from  sick  or  insane,  or  sick 
and  insane  persons.  When  Jesus  healed  demoniacs,  he 
recognized  a  dual  personality,  rebuking  and  exercising 
the  evil  spirits  while  saving  and  helping  their  victims. 
(Mark  i :  25,  and  5 :  8,  and  7 :  29.) 

The  most  important  teachings  of  the  Bible  on  this  sub- 
ject may  be  summed  up  in  this  way.  First,  what  is  unholy 
in  mankind  has  its  root,  not  in  men,  but  in  a  higher  region 
of  existence.  Second,  these  evil  influences  from  this 
higher  region  may  be  received  or  rejected  by  men.  They 
were  received  by  the  first  Adam,  and  the  consequences 
may  be  seen  in  the  prevalence  of  sin  and  suffering.  They 
were  rejected  by  the  second  Adam,  and  in  him  men  may 
be  redeemed  from  the  consequences  of  the  act  of  the  first 
Adam,  and  may  be  perfectly  protected  against  all  the 
influences  of  Satan  and  his  demons. 

From  the  synagogue  Jesus  went  to  the  home  of  Simon 
Peter,  where  he  found  Simon's  mother-in-law  sick,  and, 
taking  her  by  the  hand,  he  healed  her.  The  healing  was 
instantaneous  and  complete,  for  she  rose  from  her  bed 
and  ministered  to  them.  Regard  for  the  Sabbath  would 
give  our  Lord  a  quiet  afternoon  in  Peter's  home,  though 
his  healing  the  demoniac  in  the  synagogue  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  criticised  as  a  violation  of  the  Sabbath.  His 
healing  on  the  Sabbath  day  was  one  of  the  most  serious 


I04  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

charges  that  his  enemies  brought  against  him  afterwards, 
but  the  people  were  so  amazed  by  the  exercise  of  his 
power  over  demons  that  they  did  not  seem  to  think  of 
objecting  at  this  time. 

When  the  sun  had  set  and  the  Sabbath  was  ended,  multi- 
tudes came  to  the  home  of  Peter  where  Jesus  was  stay- 
ing, bringing  their  sick  and  suffering  friends,  and  he 
laid  his  hands  on  every  one  of  them  and  healed  them. 
Other  demoniacs  came,  and  the  demons  crying  out, 
"Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,"  were  silenced  and  exorcised. 
No  cry  for  help  was  unheeded;  no  sufferer  was  sent 
away  unhealed,  and  the  evangelist  Matthew  saw  in  this 
day's  work  the  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah, 
"Surely  he  bore  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows."  It 
was  a  great  day  in  our  Lord's  ministry.  It  revealed  and 
emphasized  one  side  of  the  mission  of  the  Christian 
church  in  this  sinning,  suffering  world.  Disciples  of 
Christ  in  this  age  do  not  have  the  power  to  perform 
miracles  of  healing  as  Jesus  did,  but  the  Christian  church 
in  its  individual  members,  does  possess  medical  and  sur- 
gical skill  to  open  many  blind  eyes,  unstop  deaf  ears  and 
heal  disease,  and  the  possession  of  this  power  throws 
on  the  church  corresponding  responsibility.  While  it  is 
the  great  mission  of  the  Christian  church  to  build  up  a 
spiritual  kingdom  of  God  in  the  world,  it  is  also  of  the 
utmost  importance  that  the  Christian  church,  as  an 
organization,  make  provision  for  ministering  to  the  tem- 
poral welfare  of  those  who  need  it  by  the  erection  and 
maintaining  of  hospitals  and  other  beneficent  institu- 
tions. 


XVII 
BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE 

Matthew  4 :  18.  "And  walking  by  the  Sea  of  Galilee  he  saw  two 
brethren,  Simon  who  was  called  Peter,  and  Andrew  his  brother, 
casting  a  net  into  the  sea,  for  they  were  fishers.  And  he  saith 
unto  them,  Come  ye  after  me,  and  I  will  make  you  fisheres  of 
men." 

(Mat.  4: 19-22;  Mark  1:16-20;  LukeS:i-ii.) 

THE  order  of  events  that  seem  to  present  fewest 
difficulties  at  this  point  of  the  history,  is  as  fol- 
lows. From  Sychar  Jesus  went  with  his  disciples 
to  Cana,  the  home  of  Nathanael.  While  he  was  at  Cana 
a  Capernaum  nobleman,  an  officer  of  Herod  Antipas, 
came  and  besought  him  to  heal  his  son  who  was  sick  at 
Capernaum.  Jesus  granted  this  request  without  going 
to  Capernaum,  and  then  went  to  Nazareth,  his  own  home, 
and  his  disciples  went  to  their  own  homes,  Andrew,  Peter 
and  John  resuming  their  avocations  as  fishermen  at  Ca- 
pernaum, while  Philip  probably  went  to  Bethsaida,  and 
Nathanael  to  Capernaum.  After  Jesus  had  been  re- 
jected at  Nazareth  he  came  to  Capernaum,  but  did  not 
teach  publicly  until  the  Sabbath  when  he  taught  in  the 
synagogue  where  he  healed  a  demoniac.  He  went  from 
the  synagogue  to  the  home  of  Simon  Peter,  where  he 
healed  Peter's  mother-in-law  and,  after  sunset,  the  end 
of  the  Sabbath,  he  healed  a  great  number  of  men  and 
women  who  were  suffering  from  various  diseases.  The 
next  morning,  rising  long  before  day,  he  went  into  a 

105 


io6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

desert  place  to  pray,  and  when  Peter  and  others  found 
him,  he  said  to  them,  "Let  us  go  elsewhere  into  the  next 
town  that  I  may  preach  there  also."  (Mark  1:38.) 
When  the  people  besought  him  to  stay  with  them,  he  de- 
layed going  elsewhere  for  a  few  days,  and  devoted  his 
time  to  teaching  the  people.  On  one  of  these  days,  prob- 
ably the  first  day  of  the  week,  he  called  Andrew,  Peter, 
James  and  John  to  follow  him  and  become  fishers  of 
men. 

The  seemingly  incidental  statement  of  Mark  that  "in 
the  morning  a  great  while  before  day  Jesus  rose  up  and 
went  out  and  departed  into  a  desert  place,  and  there 
prayed,"  may  not  indicate  any  special  time  for  private 
prayer,  but  it  certainly  is  adapted  to  impress  his  disciples 
with  the  vital  importance  of  prayer.  He  did  not  let  any 
kind  or  degree  of  work  interfere  with  his  being  alone 
with  God.  In  order  to  be  alone  with  the  Father  he  rose 
a  great  while  before  day  and  went  into  the  desert. 

Jesus  was  the  great  center  of  interest  and  attraction 
of  the  people  at  Capernaum  on  this  first  day  of  the  week. 
His  fame  had  preceded  him  ;  he  had  healed  the  demoniac 
in  the  presence  of  the  worshippers  in  the  synagogue,  and 
he  had  healed  every  one  that  was  brought  to  him  at 
Peter's  home.  It  is  not  surprising  that,  when  Peter  found 
him,  he  said,  "All  men  seek  thee."  The  great  mass  of  the 
people  did  not  realize  their  privileges,  but  they  did  realize 
that  it  was  a  truth  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  there 
was  one  in  their  city  who  could  and  would  heal  all  man- 
ner of  diseases  and  cast  out  demons.  It  was  a  matter  of 
universal  interest.  He  made  no  distinction  between  high 
and  low,  rich  and  poor  and  would  not  turn  a  deaf  ear 
to  the  cry  of  any  sufferer  however  unworthy  he  might  be. 
It  was  most  reasonable  that  there  should  be  universal  and 
intense  excitement  throughout  the  city.     Here  was  hu- 


BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE  107 

inanity's  real  and  recognized  sovereign.  Here  was  one 
who  could  heal  all  manner  of  disease,  put  an  end  to  all 
human  pain,  bind  up  all  broken  hearts,  give  instant  relief 
to  all  human  suffering,  soothe  into  glad  silence  the  uni- 
versal wail  that  is  forever  rising  from  sinning,  suffering 
humanity.  Who  in  that  city,  or  in  any  other,  could  be 
uninterested  in  such  a  Benefactor? 

Up  to  this  time,  and  amidst  all  this  excitement,  the 
disciples,  Peter,  Andrew  and  John,  had  not  given  up 
their  business  as  fishermen.  Luke,  speaking  of  Jesus, 
and  describing  an  event  that  probably  occurred  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  first  day  of  the  week,  says,  "Now  it 
came  to  pass  while  the  multitude  pressed  upon  him  and 
heard  the  Word  of  God,  that  he  was  standing  by  the 
Lake  of  Gennesaret ;  and  he  saw  two  boats  standing  by 
the  lake:  but  the  fishermen. had  gone  out  of  them,  and 
were  washing  their  nets."  He  goes  on  to  say  that  Jesus 
entered  into  one  of  the  boats,  which  was  Simon's  and 
asked  him  to  put  out  a  little  from  the  land.  Peter  obeyed 
and  Jesus  sat  down  and  taught  the  multitude  out  of  the 
boat.  This  indicates  that,  when  Jesus  had  gone  to  rest 
in  Peter's  home  after  the  Sabbath,  the  disciples  had  re- 
sumed their  work  as  fishermen.  When  Jesus  could  not 
be  found  in  the  early  morning  they  had  joined  in  the 
search,  but  when  they  found  him  they  returned  to  their 
boats  and  their  nets,  and  now,  when  Jesus  is  pressed 
with  the  crowd,  he  finds  Simon  with  his  boat,  and,  at 
his  request,  Peter  turns  his  boat  into  a  pulpit  from  which 
Christ  can  speak  to  the  people. 

When  Jesus  had  ended  his  discourse  he  said  to  Simon, 
"Launch  out  now  into  the  deep  and  let  down  your  nets 
for  a  draught."  Simon  answered,  "We  toiled  all  night; 
and  took  nothing,  but  at  thy  word  I  will  let  down  the 
i^et."    He  was  tired  and  discouraged  but  he  would  do  as 


io8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  Master  directed.  Whei>  he  had  let  down  the  net  it 
enclosed  so  many  fish  that  they  could  not  drag  it  in 
without  breaking,  and  they  beckoned  James  and  John, 
their  partners,  to  come  to  their  assistance,  and  when  they 
came  and  had  taken  in  the  fish  both  boats  were  filled  to 
the  point  of  sinking. 

All  these  experienced  fishermen  were  astonished  be- 
yond measure,  but  Peter  revealed  his  true  character  by 
doing  and  saying  what  the  ordinary  man  would  not  have 
done  or  said.  H  he  had  been  only  a  shrewd  man  of  busi- 
ness, with  eyes  closed  to  anything  greater  and  better  than 
business  success,  he  would  have  been  silent,  keeping  his 
own  counsel,  hoping  that  he  might  have  this  man  as  his 
business  partner.  Simon  Peter  was  fairly  successful  in  his 
business,  but  was  not  so  absorbed  in  it  as  to  be  blind  to 
higher  things.  He  seemed  to  forget  his  ordinary  avoca- 
tion when  he  saw  the  great  draught  of  fishes.  He  had 
seen  Jesus'  power  to  heal  men  and  to  turn  water  into 
wine,  but  now  he  saw  his  power  over  the  inhabitants 
of  the  sea.  Instead  of  catching  visions  of  worldly  gain, 
his  soul  was  filled  with  deeper,  better,  more  sublime 
emotions,  and  he  fell  down  at  Jesus'  feet,  saying,  "De- 
part from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord."  He  had 
a  profound  consciousness  that  he  needed  something  better 
than  fish;  but  a  sense  of  his  own  unworthiness  led  him 
to  ask  Jesus  to  do  the  thing  that  above  all  things  he  would 
not  have  him  do.  Jesus  saw  the  heart  of  Peter  as  dis- 
tinctly as  he  heard  his  voice,  and  said,  "Fear  not,  from 
henceforth  thou  shalt  catch  men."  Though  Peter  went 
"a  fishing"  afterwards  it  was  never  again  the  great  busi- 
ness of  his  life. 

James  and  John,  sons  of  Zebedee,  were  also  fishermen, 
and  were  partners  with  Andrew  and  Peter.  John  had 
already  become  a  disciple  of  Jesus,  but  James  is  now 


BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE  109 

mentioned  for  the  first  time.  Luke  says,  "James  and 
John  sons  of  Zebedee  were  also  amongst  those  who  were 
astonished  at  the  great  draught  of  fishes."  Mark  says 
that  James  and  John  had  been  in  the  boat  with  their 
father  mending  their  nets,  and  that  Jesus  also  called  them 
and  that  they  left  their  father  Zebedee  in  the  boat  with 
the  hired  servants  and  went  after  him. 

Other  inhabitants  of  Capernaum  wished  Jesus  to  re- 
main with  them,  hoping  he  would  bring  them  temporal 
happiness,  health  and  prosperity,  but  these  disciples  left 
all  to  follow  Jesus.  The  two  things  are  radically  and 
essentially  different.  One  makes  a  gain  of  godliness,  the 
other  counts  godliness  great  gain,  and  forsakes  all  for 
Christ.  Selfish  worldlings  would  sometimes  be  willing 
to  take  Christ  as  a  partner,  but  the  true  Christian  makes 
Christ's  business  his  own  business.  He  would  not  use 
Christ  to  accomplish  his  own  purposes,  but  would  sur- 
render himself  as  the  servant  of  Christ  to  be  used  by  him. 
These  four  disciples,  Andrew,  Peter,  James  and  John, 
had  something  to  give  up,  and,  looking  back  to  this  event 
afterwards,  they  could  claim  Christ's  promise,  saying, 
"We  left  all  and  followed  thee."  The  first  discipleship 
of  Andrew,  John  and  Peter  did  not  involve  any  special 
sacrifice  or  indicate  extraordinary  faith,  but  the  step 
that  these  four  disciples  now  take  would  have  been  im- 
possible if  they  had  not  seen  in  Jesus  Christ  something 
on  which  they  set  a  higher  value  than  they  did  on  all 
their  business  prosperity. 


XVIII 
FIRST  CIRCUIT  OF  GALILEE 

Matthew  4:23.  "And  Jesus  went  about  in  all  Galilee  teaching 
in  their  synagogues,  and  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom 
and  healing  all  manner  of  diseases  and  all  manner  of  sickness 
among  the  people." 

(Mat.  4:23-25  and  8:  1-4;  Mark  1:35-45;  Luke  4 :  42-44  and 
5:  12-16.) 

WHETHER  Jesus'  first  preaching  tour  preceded 
his  going  up  to  Jerusalem  to  a  feast  spoken 
of  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  John,  is  doubtful, 
but  this  doubt  is  largely  the  result  of  uncertainty  as  to 
whether  that  was  a  feast  of  the  passover,  or  some  other 
feast.  John  mentions  five  Jewish  feasts  at  which  our 
Lord  was  present,  viz:  the  passover  that  followed  his 
baptism,  (John  2:  13)  a  feast  of  the  Jews  (John  5:  i), 
a  feast  of  tabernacles  to  which  he  went  privately  (John 
T.2);  a  feast  of  the  dedication  (John  10:22),  and  the 
feast  of  the  passover  at  which  he  suffered  (John  J2:  13). 
It  is  probable  that  the  feast  spoken  of,  John  5:1,  was  a 
feast  of  the  passover,  and  that  the  first  preaching  tour 
in  Galilee  preceding  the  going  up  to  Jerusalem  to  attend 
it. 

The  extent  of  this  preaching  tour  is  uncertain.  If  we 
were  to  take  the  words  of  Matthew  and  Mark  literally, 
we  would  conclude  that  our  Lord  visited  all  parts  of 
Galilee  before  he  returned  to  Capernaum,  but  these 
evangelists   frequently  condense  the  history  of  a  long 

?i9 


riRST  CIRCUIT  OF  GALILEE  1 1 1 

period  into  a  few  words,  and  they  may  have  done  so  here. 
Combining  all  the  different  accounts,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  first  circuit  of  Galilee  did  not  include  all  parts 
of  the  province.  Greswell  suggests  that  Jesus  went  along 
the  western  side  of  the  Jordan,  northward,  then  along 
the  borders  of  the  tetrarchy  of  Philip,  westward,  then  by 
the  coasts  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  southward,  and  finally 
along  the  northern  boundaries  of  Samaria  back  to  the 
sea  of  Galilee.  This  would  have  been  an  extensive  tour, 
requiring  not  less  than  three  months,  and  it  is  only  the 
conjecture  of  one  who  has  carefully  studied  the  subject. 
The  one  fact  that  seems  to  be  emphasised  is  that  Ca- 
pernaum was  now  Christ's  home,  and  the  center  from 
which  he  went  out  to  preach,  or  went  up  to  Jerusalem. 
Matthew  finds  in  this  fact  a  fulfillment  of  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah,  who  had  said: 

"The  land  of  Zebulon  and  the  land  of  Naphthali, 
Toward  the  sea,  beyond  Jordan, 
Galilee  of  the  Gentiles, 
The  people  which  sat  in  darkness 
Saw  a  great  light, 

And  to  them  which  sat  in  the  region  of  the  shadow  of  death. 
To  them  did  light  spring  up." 

Concerning  the  miracles  of  Jesus  during  this  first  cir- 
cuit of  Galilee,  we  have  no  definite  information.  Luke 
assigns  to  this  period  the  healing  of  a  leper  in  one  of  the 
cities,  though  Matthew  gives  an  account  of  it  after  his 
account  of  the  sermon  on  the  Mount.  Olshausen  says, 
"The  position  given  to  this  event  by  Matthew  may  be 
chronologically  correct,  and  the  healing  of  the  leper  may 
have  happened  immediately  after  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount."  Nevertheless,  it  seems  more  in  accord  with 
what  we  may  learn  from  all  the  synoptic  gospels  to  place 
this  miracle  where  it  is  placed  by  Mark  and  Luke. 


112  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

This  healing  of  a  leper  was  so  great  an  event  as  to 
cause  the  evangelists  to  lose  sight  of  time  and  place. 
Their  narratives  differ  slightly  in  form  of  expression, 
but  combine  with  and  supplement  each  other  in  such  a 
way  as  to  give  a  vivid  and  most  impressive  picture  of  the 
whole  scene.  Every  movement,  every  attitude,  every 
word  is  carefully  noted  by  the  different  writers.  The 
man  is  full  of  leprosy  when  he  sees  Jesus.  Leprosy  was 
regarded  as  the  most  dreadful  of  all  human  diseases 
that  afflicted  humanity,  and  this  man  was  full  of  leprosy. 
The  disease  was  fully  developed,  and  the  man  was  ex- 
cluded from  the  temple,  from  every  walled  town,  and 
from  all  association  with  his  fellow  men.  He  could  not 
come  within  four  cubits  of  his  more  fortunate  brother 
man.  He  was  compelled  to  go  about  with  rent  garments, 
with  bare  head  and  covered  lip  and  to  proclaim  himself 
"unclean."  He  was  ceremonially  and  physically  unclean. 
His  condition  was  unspeakably  distressing  and  miserable, 
and  his  outlook  for  the  future  was  utterly  hopeless  when 
he  met  Jesus.  He  had  heard  of  Jesus  before  and  be- 
lieved that  he  could  save  him.  When  he  saw  him  he  fell 
prostrate  at  Jesus'  feet,  crying,  "Lord,  if  thou  wilt,  thou 
canst  make  me  clean?"  It  was  the  deep  of  man's  great 
need  calling  out  to  the  deep  of  God's  great  love. 

The  emotions  of  Jesus,  as  he  beheld  this  leper,  are  de- 
scribed by  Mark  as  he  says,  "Being  moved  with  compas- 
sion he  stretched  forth  his  hand  and  touched  him  and 
said,  I  will,  be  thou  clean,  and  straightway  the  leprosy 
departed  from  him  and  he  was  made  clean." 

This  is  the  first  time  that  any  of  the  evangelists  uses 
this  word  to  describe  the  motive  or  emotion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  but  the  word  is  used  frequently  afterwards.  This 
leper,  with  the  seeds  of  physical  death  rapidly  develop- 
ing, was  but  a  miniature  picture  of  the  condition  of  the 


FIRST  CIRCUIT  OF  GALILEE  1 13 

human  race  until  a  remedy  was  found  for  sin.  As  Jesus 
looked  on  this  leper  so  God  looks  on  sin  burdened  hu- 
manity, and  the  whole  scheme  of  redemption  finds  its 
motive  described  by  the  one  word  compassion,  as  it  is 
applied  to  Jesus  Christ.  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son  to  be  the  Saviour  of  men,  but 
divine  love,  going  out  to  lost  sinners,  becomes  divine  com- 
passion. 

When  Jesus  had  healed  the  leper  he  strictly  charged 
him  to  not  tell  any  one,  and  directed  him  to  go  and  show 
himself  to  the  priests  and  present  the  offering  required 
by  the  ceremonial  law.  There  may  have  been  many  good 
reasons  why  this  man  should  be  directed  to  not  publish 
abroad  the  miracle,  but  no  reason  is  assigned,  and  it  is 
not  worth  while  to  speculate  concerning  it.  The  man  did 
not  obey,  and  as  a  result,  our  Lord  could  not  appear  in 
the  city  and  went  out  into  a  desert  place. 

The  reason  assigned  for  the  command  that  the  healed 
leper  should  go  and  show  himself  the  priests  is  to  be 
found  in  our  Lord's  respect  for  the  ceremonial  law  that 
was  still  in  force.  It  might  be  said  that  it  was  a  violation 
of  the  letter  of  the  law  to  touch  the  leper,  and  that  by 
touching  him  Jesus  became  unclean.  If  such  an  objection 
should  arise  it  may  be  easily  answered.  Jesus  could  say 
of  the  ceremonial  law  as  he  said  of  the  Sabbath,  "it  was 
made  for  man,"  and  did  not  forbid  the  healing  touch  of 
the  omnipotent  hand  of  him  who  is  both  the  giver  and  the 
fulfillment  of  the  law.  He  was  not  defiled  by  the  touch, 
but  the  leper  was  cleansed  by  it.  He,  not  only  touched, 
but  identified  himself  with  a  sinful  race  in  order  to  save 
men,  at  the  same  time  he  remained  holy,  harmless,  unde- 
filed  and  separate  from  sinners.  His  was  the  touch  of 
compassion,  and  It  is  the  touch  of  compassion  now  that 
helps  and  saves  men. 


XIX 

FORGIVING  SIN  AND  HEALING  THE 
PARALYTIC 

Mark  2 :  5.     "And  Jesus  seeing  their  faith  saith  unto  the  sick 
of  the  palsy,    Son,   thy  sins   are    forgiven." 
(Mat.  9:  1-8;    Mark  2:  1-12;    Luke  5:  17-26.) 

AFTER  cleansing  the  leper  Jesus  dwelt  for  a  time 
in  a  "desert  place"  and  then  entered  into  Ca- 
pernaum secretly.  Mark  says,  "After  some  days 
it  was  noised  abroad  that  he  was  in  the  house,"  or  "at 
home."  This  was  equivalent  to  saying  that  he  was  in  the 
home  of  Peter,  and  that  he  had  been  there  some  days  be- 
fore it  was  known  that  he  had  returned  to  the  city.  As 
soon  as  it  became  known,  the  place  was  besieged  by  multi- 
tudes from  Capernaum  and  from  every  city  of  Galilee, 
from  Judea  and  from  Jerusalem,  so  that  there  was  no 
room,  even  about  the  door.  While  he  was  preaching, 
probably  in  the  gallery  of  the  house,  where  he  could  be 
heard  by  the  multitude  that  barred  the  entrance  to  the 
door,  four  men  came  carrying  a  paralytic.  When  they 
could  not  come  near  for  the  crowd,  they  succeeded  in 
reaching  the  roof  of  the  house,  and,  having  broken  a  way 
through  the  roof,  they  let  the  paralytic  down  on  his 
couch  "in  the  midst  before  Jesus." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  explain  the  peculiar  construction 
of  this  particular  house  in  order  to  show  how  this  para- 
lytic was  brought  to  Jesus.    The  only  fact  that  needs  to 

114 


HEALING  THE  PARALYTIC  iig 

be  noted  in  order  to  learn  the  lessons  that  this  miracle  is 
designed  to  teach  is  the  fact  that  there  seemed  to  be  in- 
surmountable difficulties  in  the  way  of  reaching  the  great 
Physician,  This  man  was  utterly  helpless.  It  required 
the  united  efforts  of  four  men  to  carry  him,  and,  when 
they  reached  the  place  where  Jesus  was,  it  seemed  utterly 
impossible  for  them  to  come  near  because  of  the  crowd. 
The  man  could  never  have  reached  Jesus  himself,  and 
no  one  man  could  have  brought  him.  This  man's  heal- 
ing was  made  possible  by  the  united,  persevering  effort 
of  five  men.  It  is  therefore  an  acted  parable  showing  the 
necessity  of  united,  harmonious  and  persevering  effort 
in  order  to  help  the  helpless. 

Instead  of  touching  and  healing  this  paralytic  as  he  had 
touched  and  healed  the  leper,  Alark  says,  "Jesus,  seeing 
their  faith,  said  unto  the  sick  of  the  palsy.  Son  thy  sins 
are  forgiven."  Every  word  of  this  record  by  Mark  seems 
wonderfully  suggestive.  Jesus  saw,  not  only  the  para- 
lytic's faith,  but  he  saw  "their  faith,"  and,  seeing  "their 
faith"  he  said,  not  to  all,  but  to  the  paralytic,  "Son,  thy 
sins  are  forgiven."  It  was  their  faith,  as  well  as  their 
united  effort  that  secured  for  this  man  the  forgiveness 
of  his  sins. 

When  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  who  were  present, 
heard  Jesus'  words,  they  began  to  reason  in  their  hearts, 
saying,  "Who  is  this  that  speaketh  blasphemies?  Who 
can  forgive  sins  but  God  alone?"  Knowing  their 
thoughts,  Jesus  said  to  them,  "Whether  is  it  easier  to 
say,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee,  or  to  say,  arise  and  walk  ?" 
It  was  evidently  as  easy  to  say  one  as  to  say  the  other, 
but  a  man  might  say  the  first  and  those  who  heard  might 
question  whether  he  had  authority  for  saying  it,  while  a 
man  saying  the  second  without  authority  would  only 
bring  ridicule  on  himself.    If  Jesus  had  said  to  the  para- 


ii6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

lytic,  "Arise  and  walk,"  and  the  paralytic  had  not  obeyed, 
the  reasonable  inference  would  be  that  the  declaration 
that  sins  were  forgiven  was  also  without  authority.  But 
if  Jesus,  who  had  declared  that  this  paralytic's  sins  were 
forgiven,  were  to  say  to  the  paralytic  "Arise  and  walk," 
and  the  paralytic  instantly  obeyed,  it  would  be  just  as 
reasonable  to  infer  that  the  proclamation  of  forgiveness 
was  equally  authoritative.  This  would  be  the  judgment 
of  every  unprejudiced,  intelligent  mind,  and  Jesus  left 
his  critics  without  excuse,  when  he  said,  "That  ye  may 
know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins,"  and  then  turning  to  the  paralytic,  said,  "Arise  take 
up  thy  bed  and  go  unto  thy  house.  The  paralytic  arose 
instantly  and  the  beholders  glorified  God  and  said,  "We 
never  saw  it  on  this  fashion." 

This  was  Jesus'  conclusive  answer  to  his  critics.  The 
reasoning  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  had  been  correct. 
No  one  has  power  to  forgive  sins  but  God.  Jesus  had 
claimed  that  power  and  now  he  has  vindicated  his  au- 
thority by  working  the  works  of  God.  His  works  were 
his  credentials  proving  his  authority.  It  was  not  a  di- 
rect claim  of  divinity,  but  it  was  a  condensed  proof  of 
it;  and,  if  the  beholders  did  not  now  believe  on  him 
they  had  no  excuse.  They  should  have  believed  for  the 
very  works'  sake,  and  should  have  said,  with  Nicodemus, 
"No  man  can  do  the  signs  that  thou  doest  except  God  be 
with  him."  This  miracle,  accompanied  by  the  claim  of 
authority  to  forgive  sins,  is  an  evidence  of  the  dvinity  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

This  was  a  definite  advance  on  Christ's  recorded  teach- 
ing up  to  this  time,  and  the  miracle  seemed  more  sug- 
gestive of  great  practical  truths  and  Christian  doctrines 
than  any  that  preceded  it.  At  the  same  time,  this  event 
shows  the  use  that  is  to  be  made  of  human  instruments 


HEALING  THE  PARALYTIC  1 17 

as  well  as  of  divine  power.  It  indicates  the  necessity  for 
organized  Christian  effort,  and  throws  on  Christians  the 
greatest  possible  responsibility  for  the  salvation  of  their 
sinful  associates,  and  especially  for  the  salvation  of 
those  who  seem  utterly  paralyzed  by  sin.  It  furnishes 
a  complete  and  most  convincing  refutation  of  the  claim 
that  a  man  can  perform  his  whole  duty  as  a  Christian 
without  becoming  a  member  of  any  church  organization. 
The  Christian  church  is  a  divine  institution  for  united 
work  and  worship.  In  the  divine  economy  every  man  is 
his  brother's  keeper  and,  ordinarily,  no  man  can  do  his 
whole  duty  to  his  fellow  men  without  being  associated 
with  others  both  in  work  and  worship. 


XX 

THE  CALLING  OF  MATTHEW 

Luke  5 :  32.  "I  am  not  come  to  call  the  righteous  but  sinners  to 
repentance." 

(Matthew  9:9-17;   Mark  2:  13-20;   Luke  5:  27-39.) 

THE  evangelist  John  tells  of  Jesus  calling  the  dis- 
ciples Andrew,  John,  Peter,  Philip  and  Na- 
thanael  when  they  were  in  the  wilderness  of 
Judea,  where  John  the  Baptist  was  preaching.  The 
synoptic  writers  give  an  account  of  a  second  call  to 
Peter,  Andrew  and  John,  as  they  were  in  their  fishing 
boats  on  the  sea  of  Galilee,  and  of  a  call  to  James,  the 
brother  of  John.  The  synoptic  writers  also  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  call  to  discipleship  of  Matthew  or  Levi,  the 
publican.  The  narratives  differ  only  in  the  one  point 
that  Mark  and  Luke  give  the  name  Levi,  while  Matthew 
gives  the  name  Matthew,  and  adds  the  despised  title  or 
epithet  "publican."  While  there  is  no  definite  infor- 
mation as  to  the  exact  time  when  Matthew  was  called, 
there  is  as  good  reason  for  placing  it  immediately  after 
the  healing  of  the  paralytic  as  there  is  for  giving  it  any 
other  place  in  the  history  of  the  Galilean  ministry. 

Matthew  was  the  son  of  Alphseus,  and  he  was  a  publi- 
can or  tax  gatherer  for  the  Roman  government.  He  be- 
longed to  a  despised  class.  The  terms  "publican"  and 
"sinner"  were  regarded  as  applicable  to  men  and  women 
who  were  on  the  same  social  and  religious  plane.  There 
is  always  a  tendency  to  regard  tax  as  exorbitant  and  op- 

118 


THE  CALLING  OF  MATTHEW  1 19. 

pressive,  and  this  tendency  is  greatly  increased  when 
there  is  taxation  without  representation.  Galilee  was  a 
Roman  province,  and  the  government  was  not  adminis- 
tered for  the  benefit  of  the  governed,  but  was  extrava- 
gant and  exacted  as  much  as  possible.  The  gathering  of 
revenues  was  in  the  hands  of  Roman  knights  who  sought 
to  make  as  much  out  of  it  as  they  could  with  safety  to 
themselves.  These  knights  employed  subordinates,  who 
were,  as  a  class,  notoriously  harsh  and  unscrupulous. 
These  facts  would  have  been  sufficient  to  render  the  of- 
fice of  publican  very  unpopular,  but  the  Jews  had  ad- 
ditional reasons  for  despising  tax-gatherers.  As  the  de- 
scendants of  Abraham,  as  Jehovah's  free  men,  they 
thought  it,  not  only  hard,  but  religiously  wrong  to  pay 
taxes  that  would  be  used  to  support  a  heathen  govern- 
ment, and,  when  one  of  their  own  number  became  a  pub- 
lican, he  was  regarded  as  a  traitor  to  his  own  nation. 

Matthew  was  one  of  these  publicans,  and  was  collecting 
the  kind  of  taxes  most  objected  to  by  the  people  when 
Jesus  saw  him  at  the  custom  house  in  Capernaum,  and 
said  to  him,  "Follow  me."  We  can  imagine  the  surprise 
with  which  the  Jews,  and  those  whom  Jesus  already 
called  to  discipleship,  heard  this  invitation.  They  could 
not  understand  why  their  Messiah  would  give  a  special 
invitation  to  one  of  this  class  to  become  his  disciple. 
They  would  not  be  less  surprised  by  the  action  of  Mat- 
thew when  they  saw  him  promptly  accepting  the  invita- 
tion, forsaking  his  lucrative  business,  and  following 
Jesus.  H  they  had  been  free  from  prejudice  and  had 
reasoned  rightly,  they  would  have  concluded  that  there 
was  something  here  that  they  did  not  understand,  that 
Jesus  Christ  saw  in  Matthew  something  that  they  did  not 
see,  and  that  he*  touched  some  spring  of  personal  influence 
that  they  did  not  recognize.    Instead  of  reasoning  in  this 


120  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

way  and  waiting  for  explanations,  the  Pharisees  began  to 
find  fault,  and,  not  long  after  this  event,  when  they  saw 
Jesus  at  a  feast  in  Matthew's  house,  they  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  eating  and  drinking  with  publi- 
cans and  sinners. 

It  was  not  strange  that  the  Pharisaic  sense  of  propriety 
should  be  shocked  by  seeing  a  great  religious  teacher 
feasting  with  publicans ;  nor  are  we  surprised  at  some 
of  the  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  objecting  to  what 
seemed  so  different  from  the  manner  of  life  of  their  own 
master,  who  was  now  languishing  in  Herod's  prison- 
house.  They  did  not  understand  Jesus  and  his  mission, 
and  they  did  not  have  true  views  of  the  character  of  God 
as  their  heavenly  Father.  Religion  seemed  to  them  to  be 
an  essentially  correct,  austere,  respectable  manner  of  life, 
and  Jesus  was  diregarding  all  their  ideas  of  respectability 
and  propriety  by  making  himself  at  home  with  this  dis- 
reputable class  as  though  there  was  no  difference  in  men. 

Their  questions  and  objections  gave  Jesus  an  oppor- 
tunity to  reveal  his  mission  and  correct  their  misappre- 
hensions. To  the  Pharisees,  who  thought  he  should  not 
associate  with  publicans  and  sinners,  he  said,  "They  that 
are  whole  have  no  need  of  a  physician,  but  they  that  are 
sick;  I  came  not  to  call  the  righteous,  but  sinners." 
Their  objection  to  his  mingling  with  sinners  because  they 
were  sinners  was  changed  into  a  potent  reason  why  he 
should  associate  with  them  in  order  to  help  them.  They 
certainly  were  neither  the  righteous  nor  the  self-right- 
eous ;  they  were  the  sick ;  they  knew  they  were  sick,  and 
they  needed  a  physician.  He  had  not  come  to  heal  these 
who  needed  no  healing  or  who  did  not  recognize  their 
need.  If  he  had  come  to  be  served  and  helped  instead  of 
serving  and  helping,  he  would  have  kept  clear  of  these 
disreputable  people.    But  he  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the 


THE  CALLING  OF  MATTHEW  121 

lost  and  he  must  go  to  those  who  had  wandered  away. 
Had  he  come  to  demand  sacrifice,  he  should  not  have 
gone  to  publicans  and  sinners,  but  he  came  to  show 
mercy  and  these  needed  mercy.  This  was  a  complete, 
and  convincing  answer  to  the  objections  offered  by  the 
Pharisees.  It  showed  that  their  objections  were  based 
on  a  misunderstanding  as  to  his  mission. 

The  Pharisees  had  criticized  Jesus  by  asking  his  dis- 
ciples why  their  Master  ate  with  publicans  and  sinners. 
The  disciples  of  John  criticized  the  disciples  of  Jesus  by 
asking  Jesus  why  his  disciples  did  not  fast  as  John's  dis- 
ciples and  the  disciples  of  the  Pharisees  did.  Jesus  might 
have  answered  this  question  by  saying,  as  he  did  in  his 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  that  real  fasting  was  a  religious 
exercise.  Instead  of  doing  so  he  took  up  John's  own 
figure  which  represented  the  Christ  as  the  bridegroom, 
and  said,  "Can  the  sons  of  the  bridechamber  fast  while 

the  bridegroom  is  with  them? The  day  will  come 

when  the  bridegroom  shall  be  taken  away  from  them, 
and  then  will  they  fast  in  that  day."  Subsequent  history 
shows  how  this  illustration  applied  to  John's  own  dis- 
ciples and  to  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  The  disciples  of 
John  were  in  deep  distress  because  their  beloved  master 
was  languishing  in  Herod's  dungeon  at  Machserus,  and 
Jesus  Christ  was  with  his  disciples  and  they  were  happy, 
but  the  time  would  come  when  he  would  be  taken  away 
from  them  and  their  sorrow  would  be  too  deep  to  find 
adequate  expression  in  abstinence  from  certain  kinds  of 
food  at  certain  seasons.  John's  disciples  did  not  know 
the  future,  and  could  not  interpret  these  words  of 
Jesus  as  readily  as  we  can.  Nevertheless,  it  is  probable 
that  our  Lord  said  far  more  than  is  recorded,  and  that 
he  made  his  teaching  perfectly  intelligible  to  the  disciples 
of  John, 


122  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Having  answered  both  classes  of  critics,  Jesus  added 
another  statement  that  revealed  the  essential  character 
of  his  kingdom,  saying,  "No  man  seweth  a  piece  of  un- 
dressed cloth  on  an  old  garment ;  else  that  which  should 
fill  up  take  from  it,  the  new  from  the  old,  and  a  worse 
rent  is  made.  And  no  man  putteth  new  wine  into  old 
wine  skins,  else  the  wine  will  burst  the  skins  and  the  wine 
perisheth  and  the  skins ;  but  they  put  new  wine  into  fresh 
wine  skins." 

There  may  be  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the  complete 
and  exact  application  of  these  words,  but  it  is  evident 
that  Jesus  desired  to  show  these  objectors  that  the  new 
dispensation  of  the  kingdom  of  God  was  more  than  put- 
ting new  cloth  on  the  old  garment  of  Judaism ;  that  the 
fasts  and  formal  observances  of  the  Old  Testament  must 
not  be  so  used  as  to  retard  and  hinder  the  glad  triumph 
of  the  New  Testament.  The  old  wine  was  good,  and  they 
who  had  drunk  of  it  felt  that  they  were  not  satisfied 
with  the  new ;  the  old  wine  could  be  kept  in  the  old  wine 
skins,  but  there  must  be  no  attempt  to  confine  the  new 
wine  in  these  old  wine  skins.  The  old  wine,  the  old 
forms,  would  continue  to  have  their  place  in  the  Chris- 
tian church,  as  they  revealed  the  source  and  history  of 
the  Christian  church,  but  these  old  forms  must  not  en- 
slave the  spirit  of  the  new.  The  Christian  church,  in 
all  ages,  will  enjoy  the  old  wine  as  it  is  distilled  in  the 
prophecies,  sacred  songs,  biographies,  precepts,  promises, 
proverbs  and  histories  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  but 
the  Christian  church  is  called  to  enter  into  a  dispensation 
of  greater  spiritual  liberty  than  was  enjoyed  under  the 
Old  Testament. 


XXI 


A  FEAST  AT  JERUSALEM  AND  THE  POOL  OF 
BETHESDA 

John  5:  I.     "After  these  things  there  was  a  feast  of  the  Jews, 
and  Jesus  went  up  to  Jerusalem." 
(John  5:1-47.) 

IN  immediate  connection  with  his  account  of  the 
healing  of  the  nobleman's  son,  the  Evangelist  John 
says,  "After  these  things  there  was  a  feast  of  the 
Jews,  and  Jesus  went  up  to  Jerusalem."  All  our  informa- 
tion concerning  our  Lord's  going  up  to  Jerusalem  to  at- 
tend this  feast  is  derived  from  the  fifth  chapter  of  John, 
The  Evangelist  speaks  of  it  as  a  feast,  and  the  omission 
of  the  definite  article  might  indicate  that  it  was  not  so 
important  a  feast  as  the  passover,  nevertheless,  there 
seems  to  be  more  potent  objection  against  regarding  it  as 
any  other  feast,  and  we  assume  that  it  was  a  feast  of  the 
passover. 

There  is  room  for  doubt  as  to  what  events  in  the 
Galilean  ministry  preceded  this  visit  to  Jerusalem.  Eder- 
sheim  places  it  before  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  the 
call  of  Matthew,  and  the  second  call  of  Peter,  Andrew 
and  John,  while  Farrar  places  it  after  all  these  events. 
If  the  first  words  of  the  i8th  verse  of  the  ninth  chapter 
of  Matthew  are  to  be  taken  literally,  we  could  not  place 
it  after  the  address  that  grew  out  of  Matthew's  feast  and 
before  the  healing  of  Jairus'  daughter ;  but  there  seem  to 

123 


124  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

be  good  reasons  for  regarding  those  words  as  a  general 
statement,  and  we  place  this  visit  immediately  after  Mat- 
thew's feast. 

No  mention  is  made  of  any  of  the  disciples  being  with 
Jesus  on  this  visit  to  Jerusalem,  and  it  seems  probable 
that  it  either  occurred  before  the  twelve  were  called  and 
commissioned,  or  that  it  occurred  while  they  were  away 
on  their  first  preaching  tour.  We  adopt  the  theory  that 
it  occurred  before  the  disciples  had  become  fully  recog- 
nized as  permanently  identified  with  their  Master,  and 
that  this  is  sufficient  reason  for  their  not  being  mentioned. 

John  only  mentions  one  miracle  of  Christ  at  Jerusalem 
during  this  feast,  and  that  was  the  healing  of  a  sick  man 
at  a  pool  called  Bethesda,  near  the  sheep-gate.  This  pool 
was  regarded  as  having  peculiar  healing  properties,  and 
there  was  a  legend  or  tradition  attributing  these  proper- 
ties to  the  visit  of  an  angel  who  came  at  certain  seasons 
and  troubled  the  waters,  so  that,  whosoever  first  stepped 
in  was  healed.  The  legend  is  not  found  in  the  oldest 
manuscripts  but  came  to  be  interwoven  with  the  inspired 
record,  and  is  found  in  some  of  the  later  manuscripts  as 
a  part  of  the  Gospel. 

Amongst  the  number  of  sufferers  who  were  waiting 
at  the  pool  and  hoping  to  be  healed,  Jesus  saw  one  who 
had  been  suffering  for  thirty-eight  years,  and  he  said  to 
him,  "Wouldst  thou  be  made  whole?"  The  sick  man 
answered  in  despair,  "Sir,  I  have  no  man,  when  the 
water  is  troubled,  to  put  me  into  the  pool ;  but  while  I  am 
coming,  another  steppeth  down  before  me." 

It  was  a  pitiful  but  typical  picture.  Infirmity  was 
dreaming  of  help  from  some  miraculous  intervention,  but 
was  pushed  aside  by  the  stronger  fellow-sufferers  until 
hope  deferred  had  made  the  heart  sick.  Nor  does  it  make 
the  case  less  pitiful,  or  less  typical,  that  the  sickness  was 


A  FEAST  AT  JERUSALEM  125 

the  result  of  the  man's  own  sin.  After  thirty-eight  years 
of  waiting,  he  felt  helpless,  and  was  well  nigh  hopeless. 
When  Jesus  knew  that  he  had  been  a  long  time  in  this 
condition,  and  had  heard  his  doleful  account  of  failure  to 
be  healed,  he  said,  "Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  walk." 
Instantly  the  paralytic  was  healed,  and  taking  up  his  bed 
left  the  place. 

This  event  occurred  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  when  the 
Jews  saw  the  man  carrying  his  bed,  they  said  to  him, 
"It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  take  up  thy  bed."  These 
Jews  had  not  been  interested  in  the  helpless,  discouraged 
sufferer  who  had  been  spending  his  Sabbaths  at  Bethesda 
in  the  vain  hope  of  being  cured ;  they  had  not  sought  to 
free  him  from  the  sin  that  was  making  him  a  helpless  in- 
valid, but  'they  would  not  permit  him  to  violate  any  law 
of  the  Sabbath  without  calling  him  to  account. 

The  man's  answer  to  his  accusers  does  not  impress  one 
favourably.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  expressed  any 
gratitude  to  his  benefactor,  and  did  not  even  ask  his 
name;  but,  when  he  was  accused  of  violating  the  Sab- 
bath, he  was  willing  to  escape  the  odium  by  throwing  the 
blame  on  his  kind  benefactor,  as  he  said,  "He  that  made 
me  whole  the  same  said  unto  me,  take  up  thy  bed  and 
walk." 

The  brevity  of  the  inspired  record  leaves  some  room 
for  doubt,  but  this  answer  suggests  the  thought  that  the 
man  who  had  been  healed  was  very  selfish  and  very  un- 
grateful. 

The  next  question  of  the  Jews  reveals  their  animus. 
They  do  not  say,  who  is  the  man  that  made  thee  whole? 
but  they  say,  "Who  is  the  man  that  said  unto  thee,  take 
up  thy  bed  and  walk  ?"  They  were  not  so  much  interested 
in  the  exercise  of  a  supernatural  power,  as  they  were  in 
the  violation  of  their  interpretation  of  the  law  of  the 


126  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Sabbath.  The  man  could  not  answer  their  question,  for 
Jesus  had  disappeared  in  the  crowd. 

We  next  find  the  healed  man  in  the  temple.  Whether 
he  came  there  to  give  thanks  or  to  find  the  one  who  had 
healed  him,  we  do  not  know.  It  seems  more  reasonable 
to  infer  that  he  came  to  find  the  one  who  had  healed  him, 
and  this,  not  because  he  was  grateful,  but  because  he 
wished  to  show  to  the  Jews  the  man  who  had  directed 
him  to  break  the  Sabbath.  When  Jesus  saw  him  in  the 
temple,  he  said,  "Behold  thou  art  made  whole;  sin  no 
more,  lest  a  worse  thing  come  upon  thee."  The  man 
then  went  and  told  the  Jews  that  it  was  Jesus  who  had 
healed  him. 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  man  does  not  say  that  it  was 
Jesus  who  had  bidden  him  take  up  his  bed,  but  that  it 
was  Jesus  who  had  made  him  whole.  His  healing  evi- 
dently seemed  to  him  more  important  than  the  com- 
mand to  carry  his  couch  on  the  Sabbath. 

There  could  hardly  be  a  more  complete  exposition  of 
the  narrow,  hostile  spirit  of  these  Jews  than  is  found  in 
the  brief  statement  of  the  Evangelist,  as  he  says,  "For 
this  cause  did  the  Jews  persecute  Jesus  because  he  did 
this  thing  on  the  Sabbath  day."  They  fix  their  whole  at- 
tention on  the  one  thing  that  they  regarded  as  a  violation 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  they  do  not  seem  to  have  even  in- 
quired as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  miracle. 

This  miracle  does  not  seenT  to  have  been  recorded  so 
much  for  its  own  sake  as  because  it  furnishes  a  setting 
for  the  teachings  of  Jesus  that  followed  it.  We  may 
readily  believe  that  it  was  performed  in  order  to  open 
the  way  for  these  teachings  at  this  particular  time  and 
place,  for,  when  the  Jews  persecuted  Christ  and  ac- 
cused him  of  violating  the  Sabbath,  he  did  not  enter  into 
an  explanation  of  the  real  nature  and  design  of  the  Sab- 


A  FEAST  AT  JERUSALEM  127 

bath,  as  he  did  at  another  time,  but  he  did  proclaim  to 
them  the  great  truth  that  God  was  his  Father,  saying, 
"My  Father  worketh  even  until  now,  and  I  work." 

To  the  Jews  this  claim  seemed  even  worse  than  break- 
ing the  Sabbath  day,  and  they  sought  to  kill  him,  "be- 
cause he  not  only  brake  the  Sabbath,  but  also  because  he 
called  God  his  own  Father,  making  himself  equal  with 
God." 

When  he  cleansed  the  temple  at  the  preceding  pass- 
over  he  said  some  things  that  appeared  in  a  perverted 
form  and  helped  to  secure  his  condemnation  when  he 
was  accused  in  the  court  of  the  sanhedrin,  and,  now,  he 
has  said  something  that  will  appear  in  the  end  to  sup- 
port the  charge  of  blasphemy  that  was  afterwards  made. 

Whether  he  was  at  this  time  summoned  before  the 
sanhedrin,  or  some  committee  of  the  sanhedrin,  is  doubt- 
ful. It  seems  most  reasonable  that  the  great  discourse 
recorded  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  John  was  delivered  in 
the  temple,  and  in  the  presence  of  some  Jewish  authorities 
that  had  called  Jesus  to  account  for  violating  the  Sab- 
bath. Whatever  the  circumstances,  the  majesty  of  the 
discourse  and  the  dignity  of  the  man  seem  to  have  over- 
awed and  silenced  his  accusers. 

In  this  discourse  Jesus  declares  that  the  Father  is  still 
working;  that  he  is  quickening  into  new  life  a  dead 
world;  and  that,  in  this  mighty  resurrection  of  a  dead 
world,  the  Son  is  associated  with  the  Father  in  mutual 
love,  with  equal  knowledge  and  authority,  quickening 
whom  he  will.  He  declares  that  all  judgment  has  been 
committed  unto  the  Son,  and  that  all  men  should  honour 
the  Son  even  as  they  honour  the  Father.  He  bids  them 
look  for  still  greater  works,  assuring  them  that  the  time 
was  coming,  and  even  now  had  come,  when  the  dead 
should  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  that  as 


128  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

many  as  heard  should  live.  He  assures  them  that  he  has 
the  power  to  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  hear  his 
words  and  believe  on  the  Father  who  had  sent  him ;  he 
says,  also,  that  the  hour  is  coming  when  all  who  are  in 
the  tombs  shall  come  forth,  they  that  have  done  good 
unto  the  resurrection  of  life  and  they  that  have  done 
evil  unto  the  resurrection  of  judgment. 

These  Jews  were  showing  their  zeal  for  mere  forms, 
when  he  summons  them  into  the  conscious  presence  of 
unseen,  eternal,  awe-inspiring  spiritual  verities. 

Speaking  of  himself,  Jesus  declares  that  he  seeks  noth- 
ing apart  from  the  Father,  and  that  he  has  convincing 
proof  of  his  divine  mission.  He  reminds  them  of  the 
testimony  that  John  the  Baptist  gave  when  they  sent  to 
him ;  he  calls  attention  to  the  works  that  the  Father  had 
given  him  to  do,  and  that  he  has  already  done  amongst 
them,  and  declares  that  he  has  more  convincing  testimony 
than  that  of  John.  Then  he  calls  attention  to  their  own 
Scriptures,  saying,  "Ye  search  the  Scriptures,  because 
in  them  ye  think  ye  have  eternal  life,  and  these  are  they 
which  bear  witness  of  me." 

These  three  witnesses  were  testifying  for  him,  John  the 
Baptist,  his  own  miracles,  and  the  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures. If  the  Jews  believed  any  one  of  these  witnesses, 
they  must  believe  on  him.  They  professed  to  believe  all 
these  witnesses,  and  yet  they  rejected  him.  How  could 
their  unbelief  be  explained?  Why  did  they  not  accept 
John's  testimony?  Why  were  they  unconvinced  by  the 
conclusive  testimony  of  his  miraculous  works?  Why  did 
they  not  find  him  as  they  searched  the  Scriptures  that 
testified  of  him? 

The  reason  was  evident  and  Jesus  placed  his  emphasis 
on  it.  Their  blindness  and  unbelief  were  the  result  of 
their  vanity  and  pride.    They  received  honour  one  from 


A  FEAST  AT  JERUSALEM  129 

another,  and  did  not  seek  the  glory  that  cometh  from 
God.  With  all  their  pretentions  of  piety,  with  all  their 
zeal  for  the  Sabbath,  they  were  essentially  worldly  and 
sensual,  and  they  had  no  real  faith  in  God.  They  were 
boasting  of  Moses,  and  yet  the  law  of  Moses  was  their 
accuser.  They  were  zealous  for  the  letter  of  the  law, 
but  they  had  lost  its  spirit.  It  was  their  essential  worldli- 
ness  that  was  blinding  their  eyes  and  making  them  ene- 
mies of  Christ  even  while  they  professed  to  have  great 
zeal  for  God's  law. 

In  this  brief  discourse  we  find  Jesus  Christ  claiming 
equality  with  God,  not  only  as  a  son  of  God,  but  as  the 
Son  of  God.  He  made  his  claims  so  clear  and  definite 
that  the  Jews  sought  even  then  to  kill  him  because  he  had 
made  himself  equal  with  God.  He  had  revealed  to 
Nicodemus  the  necessity  for  regeneration  in  order  to 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  had  told  him  of 
God's  love  in  sending  forth  his  Son  to  save  men ;  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria  he  had  revealed  himself  as  the  Mes- 
siah or  the  Christ ;  to  the  people  of  Nazareth  he  had  de- 
clared himself  the  Lord's  anointed,  spoken  of  by  Isaiah, 
but  now,  more  definitely  than  ever  before,  he  declares 
to  the  Jews,  probably  in  the  temple,  that  he  is  the  divine 
Son  of  God,  co-equal  with  the  Father.  His  wondrous 
words,  following  the  exercise  of  his  divine  power,  so 
impress  the  multitude  that  they  permit  him  to  return  to 
Galilee. 


XXII 
CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  THE  SABBATH 

Luke  6:  i.  "And  it  came  to  pass  on  a  Sabbath,  that  he  was  going 
through  the  cornfields ;  and  his  disciples  plucked  the  ears  of 
corn,  and  did  eat,  rubbing  them  in  their  hands." 

Luke  6 :  6.  "And  it  came  to  pass  on  another  Sabbath  that  he 
entered  into  the  synagogue  and  taught  and  there  was  a  man  there 
and  his  right  hand  was  withered." 

(Matthew  12:  1-21 ;    Mark  2:23-28;    Luke  6:  1-12.) 

THE  account  given  of  these  two  events  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures  indicates  that  the  Sabbath  had  become 
the  ecclesiastical  battle-field,  and  it  seemed  to  be 
the  one  test  of  Jewish  orthodoxy  that  was  constantly 
coming  to  the  front. 

The  first  event  is  recorded  by  the  first  three  evangelists, 
but  they  give  no  definite  information  as  to  time  or  place. 
The  fourth  evangelist,  having  reported  our  Lord's  dis- 
course growing  out  of  the  healing  of  a  lame  man  at 
Bethesda  on  the  Sabbath  day,  says,  "After  these  things 
Jesus  went  away  to  the  other  side  of  the  sea  of  Galilee, 
which  is  the  sea  of  Tiberias."  Mark,  having  given  an  ac- 
count of  the  disciples  plucking  the  ears  of  corn  on  the 
Sabbath,  says,  "Jesus  with  his  disciples  withdrew  to  the 
sea;  and  a  great  multitude  from  Galilee  followed;  and 
from  Judea,  and  from  Jerusalem  and  from  Idumea,  and 
beyond  Jordan  and  about  Tyre  and  Sidon,  a  great  multi- 
tude, hearing  what  great  things  he  did,  came  unto  him." 

If,  as  we  have  assumed,  this  feast  at  Jerusalem,  of 
which  John  speaks,  was  the  feast  of  the  passover,  it 

130 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  SABBATH  131 

seems  very  probable  that  this  plucking  of  the  ears  of 
corn,  recorded  by  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  and  the 
healing  of  a  withered  hand  on  another  Sabbath  day,  took 
place  as  Jesus  was  returning  from  the  feast  at  Jerusalem 
to  his  home  by  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  His  own  disciples, 
though  not  mentioned  as  being  with  him  at  Bethesda, 
would  probably  be  returning  with  him  from  the  passover, 
and  there  would  be  other  Jews  from  the  outlying  dis- 
tricts of  Judea  and  from  Idumea,  going  to  their  homes 
by  the  same  route.  It  is  probable,  also,  that  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees,  who  had  been  offended  at  his  teaching  at 
Jerusalem,  desiring  to  find  out  more  about  him,  might 
follow  or  accompany  him  on  his  homeward  journey.  It 
is  possible,  too,  that  the  inhabitants  from  Tyre  and  Si- 
don,  who  were  deeply  interested  in  his  words  and  works, 
might  return  to  their  homes  by  this  route  in  order  to  be 
with  him  on  their  journey.  This  would  account  for  his 
having  about  him  such  a  multitude  as  Mark  describes. 

The  plucking  of  the  ears  of  corn  probably  occurred 
within  the  limits  of  Judea  on  the  first  Sabbath  after  he 
left  Jerusalem.  The  evangelist  tells  us  "he  was  going  on 
the  Sabbath  day  through  the  corn  fields."  It  seems  evi- 
dent that  he  was  not  traveling  more  than  a  Sabbath  day's 
journey,  for,  had  he  done  so,  this  would  have  given  rise 
to  another  complaint.  Jesus  was  not  accused  of  violat- 
ing the  Sabbath  himself,  but  his  disciples  took  the  ears  of 
corn,  or  the  heads  of  ripe  wheat,  and,  rubbing  them  in 
their  hands,  separated  the  wheat  from  the  chaff  and  ate 
the  wheat  to  satisfy  their  hunger. 

If  any  question  should  arise  as  to  the  honesty  of  the 
disciples  satisfying  their  hunger  from  the  fields  owned 
by  others,  it  is  answered  from  the  law  of  Moses  as  it 
says,  "When  thou  comest  into  the  standing  corn  of  thy 
neighbour,  then  thou  mayest  pluck  the  ears  with  thine 


132  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

hand,  but  thou  shalt  not  move  a  sickle  unto  thy  neigh- 
bour's standing  corn"  (Deut.  23:25).  This  right  being 
clearly  defined  and  recognized  by  the  Mosaic  law,  the 
only  offense  charged  was  against  the  law  of  the  Sabbath. 
This  law  forbade  all  kinds  of  work  which  included  reap- 
ing and  threshing,  and  the  rabbis  had  decided  that  pluck- 
ing was  reaping,  and  that  rubbing  was  threshing. 

The  action  of  the  disciples  seemed  to  the  Pharisees  a 
serious  violation  of  the  law  of  the  Sababth.  They  were 
not  satisfied  with  rebuking  the  disciples,  but  they  came  to 
the  Master  and  said,  "Behold,  why  do  they  on  the  Sab- 
bath day  that  which  is  not  lawful?"  It  is  possible  that 
they  were  moved  to  say  this  by  the  hope  that  Jesus  would 
forbid  the  desecration  of  the  Sabbath  and  thus  relieve 
their  consciences,  but  the  whole  narrative  indicates  that 
they  did  not  care  so  much  for  the  Sabbath,  after  all,  as 
they  cared  to  have  Jesus  commit  himself  as  a  Sabbath 
breaker.  Their  conduct  afterwards  indicates  that  their 
zeal  for  the  Sabbath  was  a  compound  of  malice  and  pride 
of  opinion,  rather  than  real  piety  and  zeal  for  God. 

Had  Jesus  Christ  been  only  a  worldly-wise  and  politic 
man,  knowing  as  he  did  the  extreme  perjudice  of  the 
Jews,  he  might  have  constrained  his  disciples  to  endure 
hunger  and  not  give  offence  or  cause  for  complaint.  It 
was  a  small  matter,  and  the  disciples  could  have  easily 
afforded  to  suffer  hunger  and  give  up  their  liberty  in 
order  to  prevent  trouble.  A  worldly-wise  man  might 
have  said  to  the  disciples  "These  scribes  and  Pharisees 
are  narrow  and  prejudiced,  but  the  exercise  of  your  lib- 
erty will  make  trouble."  An  astute  political  leader  could 
have  said  this  to  the  disciples,  and  could  then  have  ex- 
plained to  the  Jews  that  violation  of  their  law  of  the 
Sabbath  would  not  occur  again.  This  kind  of  wisdom) 
is  sometimes  called  tact,  but  it  has  in  it  an  element  of  de-^ 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  SABBATH  133 

ceit  that  never  was  found  in  the  words  and  acts  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  perfect  man.  He  never  secured  peace  by  the 
sacrifice  of  principle,  or  by  introducing  any  element  of 
deceit.  On  this  occasion  he  frankly,  boldly  defended  the 
act  of  his  disciples.  He  said  to  the  Pharisees  just  what 
he  would  have  said  about  them.  He  called  attention  to 
what  David,  their  great  ancestor,  did  when  he  was  hungry 
— how  he  did  eat  the  shew  bread  which  it  was  not  law- 
ful to  eat  save  for  the  priests.  Then  he  proclaimed  the 
great  fact  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and  not 
man  for  the  Sabbath,  and  added,  "The  Son  of  man  is 
Lord  even  of  the  Sabbath." 

In  saying  this,  Jesus  assumed  full  responsibility  for 
what  had  been  done  by  his  disciples  on  the  Sabbath.  He 
saw  how  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  had  made  the  Sab- 
bath a  burden  and  he  sought  to  correct  their  error.  He 
was  willing  to  fulfill  all  righteousness,  but  he  was  not 
willing,  even  by  silence,  to  give  assent  to  the  enslaving 
of  God's  people  by  perverting  and  misapplying  God's  law. 
He  proceeded,  also,  to  show  to  the  Pharisees  that  this  is 
not  a  new  revelation,  as  he  says,  "have  ye  not  read  in  the 
law,  how  that,  on  the  Sabbath  day,  the  priests  in  the 
temple  profane  the  Sabbath  and  are  guiltless?"  Then, 
having  called  attention  to  the  temple  services,  he  says, 

"One  greater  than  the  temple  is  here." "For  the  Son 

of  man  is  Lord  of  the  Sabbath." 

In  all  this  it  is  evident  that  Jesus  does  not  abrogate 
nor  change  the  law  of  the  Sabbath.  He  only  condemns 
that  false  interpretation  of  the  law  that  had  changed  a 
most  beneficent  friend  of  real  liberty  into  heavy  chains  of 
slavery.  He  declares  that  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  like 
the  whole  Mosaic  code,  was  designed  and  adapted  to  pro- 
tect the  weak  and  the  poor  from  hard  bondage  and  op- 


134  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

pression,  and  that  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  and 
not  man  for  the  Sabbath. 

If  we  had  no  record  of  the  healing  of  the  withered 
hand  in  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath  day,  except  what 
we  find  in  Matthew  and  Mark,  we  would  conclude  that 
it  had  occurred  on  the  afternoon  of  the  Sabbath  on 
which  the  disciples  had  plucked  the  ears  of  corn.  But 
Luke  speaks  of  this  event  as  having  occurred  on  another 
Sabbath,  and,  since  the  three  evangelists  connect  it  with 
the  discussion  of  the  Sabbath  that  grew  out  of  the  pluck- 
ing of  the  ears  of  corn,  it  may  be  inferred  that  it  oc- 
curred on  the  following  Sabbath.  The  Sabbath  having 
become  the  ecclesiastical  battle-field,  our  Lord's  enemies 
were  watching  him,  and,  when  they  saw  him  in  the  syna- 
gogue on  the  Sabbath  day  and  knew  there  was  a  man  in 
the  synagogue  with  a  withered  hand,  they  were  very  alert 
to  see  what  he  would  do. 

Tradition  says  that  this  man  was  a  stone  mason. 
Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  the  man  needed  his  hand 
to  earn  a  living,  and  his  friends  might  have  hoped  that 
Jesus  would  see  and  heal  him.  No  such  compassionate 
motive,  however,  prompted  the  interest  of  the  Pharisees. 
They  were  interested  especially  to  see  whether  Jesus 
would  break  the  Sabbath.  Their  eagerness  was  so  great 
that  thy  could  not  let  events  take  their  course,  but  called 
Jesus'  attention  by  a  question,  saying,  "Is  it  lawful  to 
heal  on  the  Sabbath  day?"  He  knew  well  that  they  were 
not  asking  for  information  as  to  what  they  ought  to  do, 
but  to  ensnare  him,  and  He  changed  the  form  of  their 
question  before  he  answered  it  by  his  action.  The  form 
of  the  question  they  asked  might  enable  them  to  pervert 
his  answer,  but  he  asked  a  more  definite  question,  as  he 
said,  "Is  it  lawful  on  the  Sabbath  day  to  do  good,  or  to 
do  harm?    to  save  life  or  to  kill?"     They  declined  to 


CONTROVERSY  CONCERNING  SABBATH  135 

answer.  He  had  met  them  openly  and  frankly,  defend- 
ing the  actions  of  his  disciples,  and  declaring  that  the  Sab- 
bath was  made  for  man,  but  they  would  not  commit  them- 
selves to  anything.  Jesus  gave  them  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity to  declare  what  they  regarded  as  permissible 
works  on  the  Sabbath,  but  they  held  their  peace.  They 
were  treacherously  and  maliciously  silent. 

Jesus  saw  with  sorrow  and  with  righteous  anger  the 
hardening  of  their  hearts,  and  he  answered  their  abstract 
question  by  an  open,  concrete  example.  He  commanded 
the  man  to  stand  forth  so  that  they  might  see  the  need 
for  healing  and  the  opportunity  to  do  good  on  the  Sab- 
bath day  if  one  had  the  power  to  heal.  Then  he  said  to 
the  man,  "Stretch  forth  thy  hand."  The  man  obeyed, 
and  the  Pharisees'  question  was  answered,  for  Christ  had 
again  healed  a  man  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

The  animus  of  the  Pharisees  is  evident  when  the  evan- 
gelist goes  on  to  say  they  were  made  angry  even  to  mad- 
ness by  this  answer  to  their  question.  Everyone  of  them 
would  have  saved  the  life  of  a  sheep  on  the  Sabbath,  yet 
the  healing  of  this  man  only  enraged  them  because  they 
knew  in  their  hearts  that  Jesus  knew  their  motive  and 
had  placed  them  in  bad  contrast  because  he  had  done  good 
on  the  Sabbath  and  they  had  done  evil  in  trying  to  destroy 
life.  They  were  so  angry  that  they  took  counsel  with  one 
another  how  they  might  kill  him. 

This  miracle  of  Jesus  was  followed  by  a  combination 
of  the  political  with  the  religious  rulers  for  his  destruc- 
tion. Mark  says,  "The  Pharisees  went  forth,  and 
straightway  took  counsel  with  the  Herodians  against  him, 
how  they  might  destroy  him."  Up  to  this  time  Jesus 
Christ  had  met  opposition  from  individuals,  but  now  he 
meets  organized  and  powerful  religious  and  political 
enemies, 


136  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Why  the  courtiers  of  Herod  Antipas  should  have  found 
fault  with  him  for  healing  on  the  Sabbath  day  is  not  very 
evident.  It  is  probable  that  they  would  not  have  taken 
the  initiative  in  any  movement  against  him,  but  they  were 
prepared  to  act  on  the  suggestion  of  the  Pharisees. 
They,  no  doubt,  associated  Jesus  with  John  the  Baptist 
and  felt  toward  Jesus  as  the  Herodians  felt  toward  John. 
Like  John,  he  had  let  the  light  of  truth  fall  on  sin,  and, 
in  doing  so,  had  incurred  the  enmity  of  all  who  were  not 
willing  to  repent  of  their  sins. 

Never  before  had  Jesus  been  followed  by  such  a  multi- 
tude as  were  now  assembled  from  Judea,  Jerusalem,  Gali- 
lee, Idumea,  the  regions  beyond  Jordan,  and  from  Tyre 
and  Sidon ;  and  never  before  had  he  faced  such  power- 
ful, malicious  and  organized  enemies.  Exposed  hypoc- 
risy had  joined  hands  with  sensuality  for  his  destruction, 
while  multitudes  afflicted  with  all  manner  of  diseases 
were  pressing  upon  him  that  they  might  be  healed.  When 
he  reached  Capernaum  and  the  seaside  it  was  necessary 
that  he  should  have  a  boat  to  prevent  the  multitudes  from 
pressing  upon  him  while  he  taught  them. 


XXIII 

CALLING  THE  TWELVE  AND  THE  SERMON  ON 
THE  MOUNT 

Matthew  S :  l.  "And  seeing  the  muhitudes,  he  went  up  into  the 
mountain;  and  when  he  had  sat  down,  his  disciples  came  unto 
him ;   and  he  opened  his  mouth  and  taught  them,  saying," 

(Mat.  5:1;   7:29;    Mark  3:  13-19;   Luke  6:  12-49.  ) 

WHEN  and  where  our  Lord  preached  the  great 
discourse  reported  in  the  gospel  by  Matthew, 
5 :  1-7 :  29,  no  one  knows,  but  there  seem  to 
be  good  reasons  for  believing  that  the  time  was  not  long 
after  his  second  official  visit  to  Jerusalem,  and  that  the 
place  was  the  mountain  or  elevation  known  as  the  Horns 
of  Hattin,  not  far  from  Capernaum.  While  attending  a 
feast  in  Jerusalem  he  had  healed  a  lame  man  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  had  been  accused  of  violating  the  law 
of  the  Sabbath.  In  his  defense  he  had  proclaimed  himself 
the  Son  of  God,  co-equal  with  the  Father,  and  had  in- 
curred the  deadly  enmity  of  the  Jewish  rulers.  On  his 
return  from  Jerusalem,  as  we  have  assumed,  the  con- 
flict had  been  revived  by  his  disciples  plucking  and  eating 
the  ripe  grain  as  they  were  passing  through  grain-fields 
on  a  Sabbath  day,  and  by  his  healing  a  man  who  had  a 
withered  hand  on  another  Sabbath.  His  teachings  and 
his  miracles  had  attracted  great  crowds,  and  the  outcome 
of  it  all  was  a  combination  of  the  Pharisees  with  the 
Herodians  to  destroy  him.  He  was  to  meet  organized 
enemies,  and  it  seemed  a  suitable  time  for  organizing  his 

137 


138  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

kingdom  and  giving  a  clear  and  complete  statement  of  its 
spirit  and  its  laws. 

There  is  scarcely  room  for  doubt  that  our  Lord  did  in  a 
single  discourse  proclaim  the  spirit  of  his  kingdom  and 
that  Matthew  gives  the  most  complete  account  of  this  dis- 
course, while  Luke  gives  a  less  complete  account  of  it. 
It  is  probable  that  neither  evangelist  gives  anything  like 
a  complete  account  of  all  that  our  Lord  said  at  this  time. 

IMatthew  introduces  his  report  in  these  words,  "And 
seeing  the  multitudes,  he  went  up  into  a  mountain,  and 
when  he  had  sat  down,  his  disciples  came  unto  him." 
Luke,  after  speaking  of  the  choosing  of  the  twelve  Apos- 
tles, introduces  his  report  by  saying,  "And  he  came  down 
with  them,  and  stood  on  a  level  place,  and  a  great  multi- 
tude of  his  disciples,  and  a  great  number  of  the  people 
from  all  Judea  and  Jerusalem,  and  the  sea  coast  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon,  who  came  to  hear  him,  and  to  be  healed  of 
their  diseases ;  and  they  that  were  troubled  with  unclean 
spirits  were  healed.  And  all  the  multitude  sought  to 
touch  him ;  for  power  went  forth  from  him  and  healed 
them  all." 

It  need  hardly  be  said  that  these  two  evangelists  were 
giving  a  description  of  the  same  event,  but  looking  at 
it  from  a  different  point  of  observation.  The  key  to  the 
explanation  is  suggested  by  Luke  when  he  first  tells  us  that 
our  Lord  had  spent  the  preceding  night  in  the  mountain 
in  prayer.  He  had  come  down  from  a  higher  point  to 
what  was,  in  contrast  with  the  declivity,  a  level  place, 
and  yet  it  was  a  part  of  the  mountain,  so  that  one  could 
speak  of  his  going  up  into  the  mountain  and  the  other  of 
his  coming  down  into  a  level  place. 

Following  the  order  indicated  by  the  third  evangelist, 
we  may  see  Jesus  leaving  the  crowd  and  going  out  into 
a  mountain  where  he  spent  the  whole  night  in  prayer. 


CALLING  THE  TWELVE  139 

No  attempt  is  made  to  describe  the  great  thoughts  and 
comprehensive  plans  of  the  Son  of  man  as  he  goes  forth 
alone  to  commune  with  the  Father  and  gird  himself  for 
carrying  out  the  great  commission  that  he  has  received 
from  the  Father. 

The  hostile  forces  of  the  world  and  of  his  own  nation 
were  arrayed  against  him  and  he  was  about  to  organize 
his  followers,  His  trust  was  in  the  Father,  nevertheless 
he  was  using  the  ordinary  means  for  the  establishment 
of  his  Kingdom  by  organizing  those  who  were  to  represent 
him. 

Early  in  the  morning  his  disciples  met  him,  as  he 
came  down  the  mountain,  and  he  chose  twelve  who  should 
be  called  his  apostles.  These  twelve  were  to  be  with  him, 
and  he  would  send  them  forth  teaching  and  preaching 
and  having  authority  to  cast  out  demons.  In  this  list 
we  find  Peter,  Andrew,  James,  John,  Philip,  Bartholo- 
mew or  Nathanael,  and  Matthew,  all  of  whom  he  had 
called  into  his  special  service  before  this  time.  We  also 
find  Thomas,  James  the  son  of  Alphaeus,  Simon  the  Zea- 
lot, Judas  the  son  of  James,  and  Judas  Iscariot  of  whom 
we  had  not  heard  up  to  this  time.  We  only  know  that 
this  Simon  was  a  Canaanite,  that  Philip  was  probably  a 
Hellenistic  Jew,  that  James  and  Jude  were  Galileans, 
and  Judas  Iscariot  was  a  Jew. 

In  the  estimate  of  the  Christian  Church,  John  and 
Peter  are  recognized  as  the  most  prominent,  the  one  being 
pre-eminent  for  affectionate  contemplation,  the  other  be- 
ing a  recognized  leader  in  practical  life.  The  three  evan- 
gelists differ  slightly  in  their  order  of  announcing  the 
names  of  the  twelve,  but  Peter,  James  and  John  are  gen- 
erally grouped  together,  and  are  recognized  as  the  inner- 
most circle  of  disciples  and  associates  of  our  Lord.  In 
the  succeeding  history  we  shall  find  that  they  were  nearly 


140  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

always  with  him.  They  alone  were  with  him  when  he 
raised  the  daughter  of  Jairus  from  the  dead,  and  after- 
wards at  his  transfiguration,  and  during  his  agony  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane  they  were  nearest. 

No  information  is  given  as  to  why  these  particular  men 
were  chosen,  but  they  were  chosen  at  early  dawn  after  a 
night  spent  in  communion  with  the  Father,  and  this  fact 
is  suggestive.  Jesus  knew  from  the  beginning  that  one 
of  the  twelve  whom  he  chose  would  betray  him,  and  if 
we  knew  all  about  this  one  event  why  Judas  was  chosen  to 
be  one  of  the  twelve,  we  would  be  omniscient,  under- 
standing all  the  mystery  of  divine  sovereignty  and  human 
freedom.  These  particular  men  were  chosen  to  be  near 
the  Master  as  he  redeemed  a  lost  world  and  laid  the  foun- 
dation for  his  Kingdom.  Jesus  said  to  them  afterwards, 
"Ye  did  not  choose  me,  but  I  chose  you,  and  appointed 
you  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit";  he  said, 
also,  "Did  not  I  choose  you  the  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is 
a  devil?''  If  anyone  asks  why  he  chose  Judas  when  he 
knew  that  he  would  betray  him,  he  might  also  ask  why 
does  God  create  any  man  when  he  knows  that  he  will 
make  a  bad  use  of  his  life?  and  the  answer  to  all  such 
questions  is,  "The  secret  things  belong  to  the  Lord  our 
God." 

These  disciples  were  called  to  the  highest  privileges, 
and  their  call  included  heavy  burdens,  great  responsi- 
bilities and  great  trials  as  well  as  great  opportunities. 
They  were  to  follow  the  Christ  to  Calvary,  to  drink  of 
the  cup  of  which  he  drank,  and  to  be  baptized  with  his 
baptism.  Of  only  one  of  them  has  it  been  written,  "Good 
were  it  for  that  man  if  he  had  not  been  born."  He  had 
great  opportunities  and  privileges.  He  had  the  oppor- 
tunity to  sit  on  one  of  the  twelve  thrones,  judging  the 


CALLING  THE  TWELVE  141 

twelve  tribes,  but  he  was  unfaithful  and  his  privilege 
became  his  condemnation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  when  the  children  of  Israel  stood  be- 
fore Mount  Sinai  to  receive  the  law  of  the  kingdom,  the 
mountain  trembled  and  was  covered  with  smoke,  while 
thunder,  as  the  voice  of  a  great  trumpet  growing  louder 
and  louder,  filled  every  heart  with  abject  fear  or  rever- 
ential awe.  The  trembling  multitudes  besought  Moses 
to  act  as  their  mediator,  saying,  "let  not  God  speak  with 
us  lest  we  die." 

The  scene  on  the  Mount  of  beatitudes  presented  a 
stiking  contrast.  In  the  morning,  a  greater  than  Moses, 
having  chosen  twelve  disciples  from  amongst  his  fol- 
lowers, is  seated  as  their  teacher  on  a  mountain  over- 
looking the  beautiful  lake  of  Gennesaret.  He  is  sur- 
rounded by  multitudes  of  people  from  Jerusalem,  Judea 
and  all  the  region  of  Galilee,  as  it  stretches  northward 
to  Tyre  and  Sidon.  They  wish  to  hear  the  words  of  the 
great  Teacher,  and  some  of  them  hope  to  be  healed  of 
their  diseases.  Instead  of  being  terrified  by  the  smoke 
issuing  from  a  quaking,  volcanic  mountain,  and  by  the 
reverberations  of  the  thunder,  they  see  the  compassionate 
face,  they  hear  the  kind  and  gentle  voice  of  the  great  and 
loving  Elder  Brother,  while  he  speaks  to  their  hearts 
such  words  of  peace  as  they  had  never  heard  and  could 
never  forget. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  not  in  this  discourse  the  abro- 
gation of  a  single  precept  of  the  law  given  to  Moses  on 
the  tables  of  stone  at  Mount  Sinai.  That  law  was  holy; 
it  proclaimed  the  essential  and  eternal  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong,  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  only 
gives  a  clearer  and  fuller  revelation  of  its  profound 
meaning  and  universal  application.    Running  through  this 


142  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

great  discourse  there  is  a  demand  for  perfect  obedience 
and  for  absolute  trust.  To  Israel  at  Sinai,  God  said,  "I 
am  the  Lord  thy  God  who  brought  thee  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  Thou  shalt  have 
no  other  gods  before  me."  In  the  light  of  the  subsequent 
history  of  Christ,  as  we  think  of  his  death,  we  might 
hear  him  say,  as  a  preface  to  this  great  discourse,  "Since 
God  is  the  Lord,  and  your  Redeemer,  you  shall  perfectly 
obey  and  trust  him."  This  discourse  shows  what  real 
obedience  is,  and,  at  the  same  time,  reveals  the  source  of 
power  to  obey  God.  It  elevates  the  law  of  God  above  the 
mere  letter;  it  lifts  man  above  the  sensual  and  the  pres- 
ent into  the  atmosphere  of  the  spiritual  and  eternal ;  it 
addresses  him  as  the  immortal  child  of  the  heavenly 
Father.  As  a  religious  discourse,  it  is  unique  and  pre- 
eminent. As  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  it  discovers  and 
condemns  every  secret  sin ;  and,  as  an  infinitely  wise, 
strong  and  loving  friend,  it  supplies  the  felt  need  of  every 
hungry,  thirsty  immortal  soul. 

The  Jews  had  been  looking  for  a  Messiah  who  should 
break  every  yoke  of  bondage  and  wield  a  scepter  of  uni- 
versal dominion,  crushing  the  enemies  of  Israel  in  all 
parts  of  the  known  world.  These  disciples,  whom  Jesus 
had  chosen,  shared  this  false  view  of  the  Christ  and  of 
his  kingdom,  and  this  discourse,  immediately  after  their 
appointment,  seemed  designed  and  adapted  to  correct 
their  errors.  They  had  come  to  him,  believing  on  him 
as  the  promised  King;  but  they  had  hopes  of  the  glory, 
riches  and  honors  of  a  world-kingdom.  In  this  discourse 
he  seeks  to  dissipate  these  hopes  by  revealing  another  and 
very  different  kingdom,  where  the  poor  in  spirit,  the 
mourners,  the  meek,  those  who  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness,  the  merciful,  the  pure  in  heart,  the  peace- 
makers, and  the  persecuted  are  the  truly  blessed  and  the 


CALLING  THE  TWELVE  143 

really  happy.  If  the  disciples  had  caught  the  full  meaning 
of  this  sermon,  they  would  have  known  from  the  begin- 
ning that  Christ's  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world,  and 
they  would  have  undestood  all  that  he  had  said  to  Nico- 
demus  about  the  necessity  for  a  new  birth  in  order  to  see 
and  enter  into  the  enjoyment  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  riches  of  poverty,  the  joy  of  mourning,  the  royalty 
of  meekness,  the  blessedness  of  being  persecuted  for 
righteousness,  could  not  be  appreciated  by  the  natural 
heart.  The  blessedness  of  seeing  God  and  having  the 
hunger  and  thirst  of  their  souls  satisfied  was  no  essential 
part  of  their  dreams  of  a  Messianic  kingdom,  and  our 
Lord's  words  musF  have  bewildered  them.  They  had  not 
thought  of  being  the  salt  of  the  earth  and  exerting  them- 
selves for  the  good  of  others.  They  had  not  thought  of 
letting  their  light  shine  for  anything  greater  and  better 
than  their  own  glory.  It  must  have  seemed  to  most  of 
those  who  heard  the  first  part  of  his  discourse  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  describing  something  entirely  different  from 
the  kingdom  of  which  they  had  dreamed  and  for  which 
they  had  hoped. 

After  revealing  the  spirit  of  his  kingdom,  Jesus  spoke 
of  his  own  mission  and  purpose  as  the  Christ,  saying, 
"Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  and  the 
prophets ;  I  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill."  He  de- 
clared that  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  law  should  fail  of 
fulfillment;  but  he  showed,  at  the  same  time,  that  the 
scribes  and  the  Pharisees  had  a  very  false  and  inadequate 
conception  of  what  the  law  of  God  required.  He  as- 
sured his  hearers  that  if  their  righteousness  did  not  ex- 
ceed the  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  they 
should  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  He, 
not  only  accepts  the  letter  of  the  law,  as  it  says,  "Thou 
shalt  not  kill,"  but  proclaims  its  profound  meaning  and 


144  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

broad  application,  showing  that  it  forbids  anger,  unkind 
and  maHcious  thoughts  as  well  as  acts.  He  finds  the  germ 
of  adultery  in  the  lustful  look,  and  demands  the  giving 
up  of  everything  that  would  lead  into  sin  though  it  might 
be  as  dear  as  a  right  eye  or  as  needful  as  a  right  hand. 
He  lifts  his  hearers  above  the  sensual  and  the  present  into 
the  atmosphere  of  the  spiritual  and  eternal ;  he  bids  them 
look  at  present  joys  and  present  sorrows  in  the  light  of 
the  eternal  years,  saying,  "it  is  profitable  for  thee  that 
one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  that  thy  whole 
body  go  into  hell."  He  forbids  all  profanity  and  con- 
demns the  spirit  of  revenge,  substituting  for  it  the  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice.  He  extends  the  law  of  love  to  enemies 
as  well  as  to  friends  and  neighbors.  He  warns  against 
being  satisfied  with  the  prevalent  moral  code  that  had 
come  down  from  the  olden  time,  approving  the  love  of 
friends  and  the  hatred  of  enemies,  and  cities  the  ex- 
ample of  the  heavenly  Father  who  sends  sunshine  and 
rain  upon  the  evil  and  the  good,  upon  the  just  and  un- 
just. He  calls  upon  his  disciples  to  rise  above  the  morali- 
ty of  the  publicans  and  become  perfect  as  their  heavenly 
Father  is  perfect. 

Turning  to  the  discussion  of  the  more  distinctly  re- 
ligious duties,  such  as  almsgiving,  prayer  and  fasting, 
Jesus  condemns  the  besetting  sins  of  the  Jews  and  of  all 
self-righteous  formalists  in  all  ages.  He  shows  how  the 
purpose  determines  the  character  of  the  act,  declaring  or 
saying  that  the  hypocrites  give  alms,  not  because  they 
have  real  compassion  for  the  poor,  nor  because  they  wish 
to  lend  to  the  Lord,  but  because  they  wish  to  be  seen  and 
praised  of  men.  He  condemns  the  selfish  spirit  that  is 
back  of  this  ostentation,  saying,  "when  thou  doest  alms 
let  not  thy  left  hand  know  what  thy  right  hand  doeth." 
He  makes  it  plain  that  his  disciples  are  to  do  good  to  their 


CALLING  THE  TWELVE  145 

fellow  men,  not  for  the  purpose  of  being  seen  of  men, 
but  as  an  expression  of  love  for  their  heavenly  Father  and 
of  genuine  compassion  for  their  fellowmen.  He  teaches 
that  true  beneficence  is  the  expression  of  love  of  God  in 
the  human  heart  and  that  its  purest  joy  is  found  in  its 
secret  fellowship  with  God. 

The  hearts  and  consciences  of  men  approve  this  teach- 
ing, for  men  know  that  ostentation  puts  upon  almsgiving 
the  stamp  of  selfishness,  eliminating  to  some  extent,  at 
least,  the  element  of  loving  self  sacrifice.  This  command 
of  Jesus  does  not  conflict  in  the  least  with  his  command 
to  let  our  light  shine  before  men  that  God  may  be  glori- 
fied. The  end  crowns  the  work.  A  man  may  give  to  the 
poor  publicly  in  order  to  move  others  to  give  and  he  may 
be  justified  in  doing  so.  This  discourse  only  condemns 
the  ostentation  that  seeks  self  praise. 

Jesus  applies  the  same  principle  to  the  matter  of  direct 
worship  of  God  that  he  has  applied  to  almsgiving.  He 
does  not  condemn  any  place  or  attitude  in  prayer,  but  he 
does  condemn  the  motive  that  would  lead  men  to  assume 
any  particular  attitude  and  frame  any  particular  form 
of  prayer  in  order  that  they  may  be  seen  of  men  and 
reckoned  religious.  He  condemns  the  using  of  forms  of 
worship  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  the  praise  of  men, 
showing  that  prayer  is  the  oifering  up  of  our  desires  unto 
God  with  reverence,  adoration,  confession  and  thanks- 
giving, that  it  is  essentially  a  matter  between  the  soul  and 
God,  and  when  its  place,  posture  or  form,  is  chosen  to 
please  men,  it  ceases  to  be  prayer.  He  puts  the  stamp  of 
his  condemnation  on  that  deceitfulness  of  the  human 
heart  that  would  lead  a  man  to  pretend  to  talk  with  God 
in  order  to  be  seen  and  heard  of  men.  Our  Lord  does 
not  condemn  long  prayers,  for  he  spent  whole  nights  in 
prayer;   he  does  not  condemn  a  special  form  of  words^ 


146  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

for  he  taught  his  disciples  to  pray ;  he  does  not  condemn 
prayer  in  the  presence  of  others,  for  he  prayed  in  the 
presence  of  his  disciples,  and  the  sacred  Scriptures  re- 
quire public  prayer ;  he  does  condemn  that  deadly  sin  of 
hypocrisy  that  would  pray  to  God  in  order  to  have  the 
praise  of  men  and  a  reputation  for  piety. 

Jesus  puts  desire  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  at  the  very  center  of  prayer.  The  first  petition  of 
his  prayer  leads  up  to  the  petition  for  the  coming  of 
God's  kingdom.  He  emphasizes  the  necessity  for  exer- 
cising toward  our  fellow  men  the  same  spirit  of  forgive- 
ness that  we  ask  God  to  exercise  toward  us.  The  form 
of  prayer  that  he  gave  to  his  disciples  combined  the  ex- 
pression of  humble  reverence  with  holy  boldness  and 
childlike  confidence.  It  gives  desire  for  the  coming  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  the  first  place,  and  places  the  doing 
of  God's  will  above  individual  desires ;  at  the  same  time, 
it  asks  for  the  good  things  of  life,  as  it  says,  "give  us 
this  day  our  daily  bread."  It  professes  forgiveness 
toward  all  men.  Jesus  teaches  that  real  prayer  is  the 
outgoing  of  the  soul  in  communion  with  God ;  that  the 
appropriate  place  is  the  inner  chamber,  where  we  can  be 
alone  with  God. 

Fasting  or  extraordinary  religious  services  are  neither 
condemned  nor  commended,  but  Jesus  applies  to  these  the 
same  principle  that  he  applies  to  other  forms  of  special 
religious  services.  If  any  one  wishes  to  fast  as  a  religious 
exercise,  it  is  not  necessary  that  he  be  seen  of  men  to  fast, 
In  this  discourse  the  great  Teacher  does  not  condemn  any 
outward  forms,  times  or  places  of  religious  worship  or 
services,  but  he  certainly  does  condemn  any  and  every 
outward  form  of  religious  observance  that  is  prompted 
by  a  desire  to  gain  the  praise  of  men.    He  exposes  and 


CALLING  THE  TWELVE  147 

condemns  the  most  dangerous  enemy  of  religion,  and  that 
is  hypocrisy. 

After  discussing  the  forms  of  worship  and  warning 
against  all  kinds  of  insincerity,  Jesus  goes  on  to  empha- 
size the  necessity  for  dedicating  the  heart  to  God.  He 
compares  earthly  with  heavenly  treasures  and  commends 
the  heavenly  as  secure  and  imperishable ;  he  declares  that 
men  cannot  serve  two  masters,  that  they  must  choose  be- 
tween God  and  mammon.  He  calls  attention  to  God's 
providential  care  displayed  in  feeding  the  birds  and  cloth- 
ing the  lilies,  and  since  God  cares  more  for  men  than  he 
does  for  the  birds  or  the  lilies,  and  knows  what  men  have 
need  of,  he  adds,  "be  not  therefore  anxious,  saying, 
'what  shall  we  eat?  what  shall  we  drink?  or  wherewithal 
shall  we  be  clothed  ?' "  Then  he  seems  to  condense  into 
one  sentence  the  precepts  and  promises  that  run  through 
the  whole  discourse,  as  he  says,  "Seek  ye  first  his  king- 
dom and  his  righteousness,  and  all  these  things  shall  be 
added  unto  you."  In  this  one  sentence  he  answers  the 
question  that  has  been  discussed  by  philosophers  in  all 
ages  and  declares  that  this  is  the  way  to  secure  the  highest 
good.  Solomon  had  said,  "Fear  God  and  keep  his  com- 
mandments, for  this  is  the  whole  of  man";  Jesus  Christ 
gives  the  same  thought  clearer  and  fuller  expression  when 
he  demands  perfect  obedience  and  absolute  trust.  He 
lifts  his  disciples  above  the  world,  with  its  universal 
struggle  for  existence  and  the  survival  of  the  strongest, 
into  the  kingdom  of  God,  where  the  highest  good  is  at- 
tained by  everyone  who  will  trust  and  obey  him. 

Having  revealed  the  spirit  and  laws  of  his  kingdom, 
Jesus  goes  on  to  show  how  men  are  to  seek  it,  saying, 
"Judge  not  that  ye  be  not  judged."  Each  one  is  to  begin 
by  examining  his  own  life  and  purifying  his  own  heart 
before  he  begins  to  condemn  or  correct  the  sins  of  others. 


148  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Harsh  and  censorious  judgment  of  others  must  give  place 
to  such  kindly  charitable  judgment  as  the  consciousness 
of  our  own  need  of  forgiveness  would  warrant,  since  each 
one  is  fixing  a  standard  by  which  he  will  be  judged  when 
he  judges  others. 

Great  truths  and  great  virtues  seem  to  lie  on  the  border- 
land of  great  errors  and  great  vices.  Jesus  recognizes 
this  when,  having  exhorted  men  to  not  judge  others 
harshly,  he  warns  them  against  becoming  blind  to  the 
essential  distinction  between  right  and  wrong,  between  the 
good  and  the  evil  in  the  lives  of  their  fellowmen,  as  he 
says,  "cast  not  your  pearls  before  swine."  While  he  con- 
demns censoriousness  and  forbids  the  usurpation  of  the 
judgment  seat,  he  would  not  have  men  fail  to  discrimi- 
nate between  good  and  evil.  He  reveals  to  us  how  we 
may  be  able  to  discern  the  right,  assuring  us  that  God 
is  our  Father,  that  he  is  more  ready  to  give  us  the  wisdom 
and  strength  we  need  than  earthly  parents  are  to  give 
good  gifts  to  their  children,  adding,  "every  one  that  ask- 
eth  receiveth ;  he  that  seeketh  findeth ;  and  to  him  that 
knocketh  it  shall  be  opened."  He  declares  that  the  path 
of  duty  will  become  plain  when  we  recognize  God  as  our 
reconciled,  forgiving  and  loving  heavenly  Father,  and, 
as  the  same  time,  sincerely  seek  to  do  to  our  fellow  men 
what  we  would  have  them  do  to  us.  He  declares  that  no 
man  need  be  confused  and  in  doubt  if  he  be  sincere  and 
in  earnest,  but  the  gate  is  strait  and  the  way  narrow, 
and  there  is  need  for  earnest,  constant  strife  on  the  part 
of  all  who  seek  the  kingdom.  He  would  not  have  any 
one  blindly  follow  the  leadership  of  others,  but  would 
have  each  one,  using  his  own  intelligence  and  conscience, 
judge  men  and  their  doctrine  by  their  fruits. 

Last  of  all,  Jesus  warns  his  disciples  against  trusting 
their  privileges   and  professions,   declaring  that   many, 


CALLING  THE  TWELVE  149 

who  will  say  "Lord,  Lord,  did  we  not  prophesy  in  thy 
name?"  shall,  in  the  end,  be  rejected.  He  closes  with  the 
words,  "Every  one  therefore  who  heareth  these  words 
of  mine,  and  doeth  them,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  wise  man, 
who  built  his  house  upon  the  rock :  and  the  rain  descend- 
ed, and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat 
upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell  not ;  for  it  was  founded  upon 
the  rock.  And  every  one  that  heareth  these  words  of 
mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish 
man,  who  built  his  house  upon  the  sand:  and  the  rain 
descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and 
smote  upon  that  house ;  and  it  fell :  and  great  was  the 
fall  thereof." 

The  multitudes  who  heard  this  discourse  were  aston- 
ished because  Jesus  taught  them  as  one  having  authority, 
and  not  as  the  scribes.  They  had  good  reason  for  aston- 
ishment when  they  compared  these  simple,  living,  heart- 
searching,  helpful  words  with  the  cold,  formal,  lifeless 
words  of  their  religious  teachers.  While  their  religious 
teachers  were  bound  by  the  fetters  of  tradition,  and  gave 
special  attention  to  fanciful  and  minute  distinctions,  los- 
ing sight  of  the  great  truths  that  vitally  concerned  the 
temporal  and  eternal  well  being  of  men,  Jesus  Christ,  in 
the  simplest  language,  spoke  directly  to  their  hearts  the 
very  truth  of  God,  and  as  in  the  conscious  presence  of 
God. 

Multitudes  in  this  age  are  not  less  astonished  when  they 
compare  these  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  with  all  that  is 
greatest  and«best  in  the  philosophy  or  eloquence  of  these 
latter  days.  We  do  not  find  in  all  our  literature  any  essay, 
sermon  or  poem  that  can  be  compared  with  this  sermon  on 
the  mount.  It  is  brief,  but  comprehensive,  profound, 
but  very  simple — the  voice  of  God  in  the  language  of 
man.    As  we  read  it  we  say,  "never  man  spake  like  this 


150  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

man."  Like  the  love  of  Christ,  the  length  and  breadth 
and  depth  and  height  of  this  sermon  surpass  knowledge. 
As  we  read  it,  our  hearts  are  searched,  our  motives  dis- 
covered, our  consciences  quickened,  and  we  stand  in  the 
conscious  presence  of  the  living  God,  and  recognize  him 
as  our  heavenly  Father.  On  Mount  Sinai,  God  revealed 
himself  through  Moses,  as  the  great  and  righteous  law- 
giver ;  on  the  Mount  of  Beatitudes,  through  Jesus  Christ, 
he  reveals  himself  as  our  heavenly  Father. 


XXIV 
HEALING  THE  CENTURION'S  SERVANT 

Luke  7 : 9.  "And  when  Jesus  heard  these  things  he  marveled 
at  him,  and  turned  and  said  unto  the  muhitude  that  followed,  I 
say  unto  you,  I  have  not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel." 

(Mat.  8:5-13;  Luke  7:1-10.) 

MATTHEW  tells  of  the  cleansing  of  a  leper  in 
close  connection  with  his  report  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount;  but  there  seems  to  be  good 
reason  for  giving  that  miracle  a  different  place  in  the 
history.  We  follow  the  chronological  order  as  indicated 
by  Luke,  when  he  says,  "After  he  had  ended  all  his  say- 
ings in  the  ears  of  the  people,  he  entered  into  Caper- 
naum." 

Jesus,  with  his  disciples,  went  from  the  mount  of  Be- 
atitudes directly  to  Capernaum.  He  had  become  well 
known  throughout  the  city.  Five  of  his  disciples,  and 
probably  his  own  family  dwelt  there.  He  had  healed  the 
child  of  a  Capernaum  nobleman;  he  had  healed  a  de- 
moniac in  the  city ;  he  had  healed  all  manner  of  diseases 
at  the  home  of  Peter,  and  his  fame  had  gone  abroad  so 
that  he  was  the  theme  of  conversation  and  the  center  of 
attraction. 

There  lived  in  Capernaum  at  that  time  a  Roman  cen- 
turion who  was  recognized  as  a  generous  friend  of  the 
Jews.  He  had  built  their  synagogue  and  secured  their 
good  will  to  a  remarkable  degree.  At  his  request,  the 
elders  of  the  Jews  came  to  Jesus  beseeching  him  to  heal 

151 


152  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

a  beloved  servant  who  was  lying  at  the  point  of  death. 
They  enforced  their  request  by  saying  that  the  centurion 
was  a  worthy  man  and  a  good  friend  of  their  nation. 
Jesus  heard  their  petition,  and  went  with  them.  As  he 
came  near  the  centurion's  house,  friends  came  out  to  meet 
him  with  a  message  from  the  centurion,  saying,  "Lord, 
trouble  not  thyself;  for  I  am  not  worthy  that  thou 
shouldest  come  under  my  roof;  wherefore  neither 
thought  I  myself  worthy  to  come  unto  thee;  but  say  the 
word,  and  my  servant  shall  be  healed.  For  I  also  am  a 
man  set  under  authority,  having  under  myself  soldiers ; 
and  I  say  to  this  one,  Go,  and  he  goeth ;  and  to  another, 
Come,  and  he  cometh ;  and  to  my  servant,  Do  this,  and 
he  doeth  it."  When  Jesus  heard  this  message  he  mar- 
velled, and  said  to  the  multitude,  "I  have  not  found  so 
great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel" ;  and  I  say  unto  you,  that 
many  shall  come  from  the  East  and  the  West,  and  shall 
sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven :  but  the  sons  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
cast  forth  into  utter  darkness ;  there  shall  be  the  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth."  Then  Jesus  said  unto  the  cen- 
turion, "Go  thy  way ;  as  thou  hast  believed,  so  be  it  done 
unto  thee,"  and  wlien  they  returned  to  the  house  they 
found  the  servant  healed. 

The  average  Roman  soldier  was  proud,  cruel  and  ty- 
rannical; but  four  Roman  centurions  stand  out  in  the 
sacred  history  as  noble  exceptions.  One  of  these  com- 
manded the  guard  when  Jesus  Christ  was  crucified,  and  he 
exclaimed,  "Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God";  another, 
named  Cornelius,  feared  God  with  all  his  house,  abounded 
in  almsgiving,  had  good  repute  amongst  the  Jews,  and 
was  the  first  gentile  convert ;  a  third  was  Paul's  keeper 
on  the  journey  to  Rome,  and  was  a  model  of  courtesy  and 
kindness.    No  one  of  the  four  has  a  better  record  than 


HEALING  THE  CENTURION'S  SERVANT  153 

this  one  in  Capernaum.  As  a  commander  of  Roman 
soldiers,  he  had  power  to  exercise  tyranny  and  oppress 
a  despised  people,  but  he  loved  the  people  over  whom  he 
ruled,  and  showed  his  interest  in  them  by  building  them 
a  house  of  worship.  He  was,  not  only  interested  in,  but 
loved  this  sick  servant  in  his  own  household,  and  sought 
to  save  his  life  even  as  if  he  had  been  his  own  son :  He 
was  a  model  of  humility  and  reverence,  feeling  unworthy 
to  have  Jesus  Christ  come  into  his  house.  He  had,  at  the 
same  time,  a  deep  insight  into  Christ's  kingdom,  and 
knew  that,  since  he  could  send  his  soldiers  to  do  his 
bidding,  Christ  did  not  need  to  come  into  his  house  to 
issue  his  commands  in  the  realms  where  he  had  all 
authority.  In  this  genuine  humility,  combined  with  this 
insight  of  Christ's  kingdom,  our  Lord  saw  such  faith  as 
he  had  not  found  elsewhere,  even  in  Israel. 

By  this  remarkable  commendation  Jesus  teaches  that 
the  highest  and  holiest  faith  does  not  depend  on  visible, 
tangible  evidences  of  the  divine  presence.  This  man's 
faith  did  not  need  to  have  Christ  come  under  his  roof. 
It  recognized  a  divine  power  without  any  visible,  tangible 
evidence.  le  recognized  a  spiritual  realm  in  which  Jesus 
Christ  ruled  as  King.  This  centurion  probably  would 
have  failed  to  pass  a  satisfactory  examination  in  system- 
atic theology,  but  he  had  a  generous,  loving,  trustful 
heart.  He  trusted  God  and  loved  men,  recognizing  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  ruler  of  the  invisible,  spiritual  forces.  He 
was  a  man  in  authority  in  a  material  kingdom,  but  he 
felt  unworthy  to  have  this  supernatural  Ruler  of  the 
higher,  spiritual  realm  come  under  his  roof.  He  even 
thought  himself  unworthy  to  come  to  Jesus  in  person 
and  asked  representatives  of  God's  chosen  people  to  act 
as  intercessors  for  him.  Our  Lord,  who  could  read  the 
hearts  of  all,  saw  in  this  man  greater  faith  than  he  foiind 


154  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

in  the  men  who  had  come  as  his  representatives  and 
greater  faith  than  in  all  Israel.  That  was  probably  not 
the  first  nor  the  last  time  when  humble,  contrite  men  and 
women  have  besought  ministers  of  the  gospel  and  of- 
ficers in  the  church  to  intercede  for  them,  while  the  om- 
niscient eye  saw  in  their  humble,  contrite  hearts  truer, 
more  prevailing  and  acceptable  prayer  than  he  heard  from 
the  lips  of  their  intercessors. 

Great  faith  and  great  humility  always  go  together. 
The  man  who  really  sees  God,  either  in  his  works  or  in 
his  word,  will  be  so  impressed  with  the  divine  wisdom, 
power  and  goodness  of  his  Creator  that  he  will  be  filled 
with  humility.  Like  this  centurion,  who  recognized  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  representative  of  the  invisible  God,  he  will 
be  filled  with  reverential  awe,  and  will  be  ready  to  accept 
God's  gifts  with  profound  humility. 


XXV 
RAISING  THE  YOUNG  MAN  OF  NAIN 

Luke  7:  15.    "Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  Arise." 
(Luke  7:  11-17.) 

SOON  after  healing  the  centurion's  servant,  probably 
the  next  day,  Jesus,  with  his  disciples  and  a  multi- 
tude of  people  came  to  a  city  called  Nain,  situated 
on  the  northern  slope  of  little  Hermon,  not  far  from 
Endor.  He  may  have  sailed  to  the  southern  end  of  the 
Sea  of  Galilee,  whence  he  could  pass  down  the  valley  of 
the  Jordan  and,  turning  to  the  right,  go  up  one  of  the 
ravines  leading  to  Esdraelon,  entering  Nain  from  the 
northeast.  Or,  he  may  have  gone  overland  by  a  nearer 
route,  approaching  the  town  from  the  north,  and  this 
route  seems  the  more  probable  since  a  great  multitude 
went  with  him. 

The  City  of  Nain  has  become  an  insignificant  village  of 
ruins  occupied  by  a  few  families  of  ignorant,  fanatical 
Moslems.  Dr.  Thompson  says,  "It  is  in  striking  accord 
with  the  Biblical  incident  in  the  history  of  Nain,  that 
renders  it  dear  to  the  Christian  heart,  that  about  the 
only  remains  of  antiquity  are  the  tombs.  These  are  cut 
in  the  rock,  and  are  situated  on  the  hillside  to  the  east 
of  the  village." 

As  Jesus,  with  his  disciples  and  a  great  multitude  of 
people,  drew  near  to  the  gates  of  the  city,  he  met  a  large 
funeral  procession  bearing  the  dead  body  of  the  only  son 
of  a  widowed  mother  to  one  of  these  rock  hewn  tombs. 

155 


156  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Such  a  scene  would  at  any  time  fill  the  beholder  with  a 
sense  of  reverential  awe.  In  the  presence  of  our  dead, 
we  all  feel  that  we  are  standing  on  the  borderland  of  an 
unseen  world.  The  godless,  as  well  as  the  godly,  feel 
that  the  mystery  of  death  is  a  message  from  the  invisible 
God  and  from  another  world. 

In  very  few  words  Luke  gives  a  vivid  and  pathetic  pic- 
ture of  this  event,  when  he  says,  "There  was  carried  out 
one  that  was  dead,  the  only  son  of  his  mother,  and  she  was 
a  widow." 

Every  clause  of  this  statement  was  full  of  meaning. 
With  the  exception  of  the  bond  that  unites  husband  and 
wife  in  Christian  marriage  making  them  one  flesh  and 
blood,  none  could  be  more  tender  than  the  one  that  unites 
a  widowed  mother  to  an  only  son.  The  sight  of  this 
widow's  grief  filled  Jesus'  heart  with  compassion  and  he 
said  to  her,  "Weep  not."  This  was  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  ordinary  formula  used  at  funerals  in  Palestine, 
and  it  would  have  seemed  like  mocking  grief  if  it  had  not 
been  spoken  by  One  who  had  power  to  help  and  heal  the 
broken  heart.  The  words  of  Jesus  were  neither  mockery 
nor  the  exhortation  of  a  stoic,  for,  as  he  said  this,  he 
touched  the  bier,  and  the  bearers  stood  still ;  then,  speak- 
ing to  the  dead,  he  said,  "Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee, 
Arise."  It  was  the  voice  of  omnipotence.  Life  and  death 
had  met,  and  Life  had  conquered,  for,  "he  that  was  dead 
sat  up  and  began  to  speak,  and  Jesus  gave  him  to  his 
mother." 

There  are  joys  and  sorrows  that  words  will  not  ex- 
press, and  the  evangelist  does  not  attempt  to  describe  the 
emotions  of  this  mother  as  she  received  and  embraced 
her  son,  and  began  to  realize  that  he  was  indeed  alive. 
Over  the  actions  of  mother  and  son  the  inspired  writer 
throws  the  mantle  of  silence,  but  directs  our  attention  to 


RAISING  THE  YOUNG  MAN  OF  NAIN      157 

the  multitude  who  witnessed  the  miracle,  as  he  says,  "And 
fear  took  hold  on  all ;  and  they  glorified  God,  saying,  a 
great  prophet  is  risen  among  us ;  and  God  has  visited  his 
people." 

If  the  death  of  this  young  man  had  suggested  thoughts 
of  God,  his  return  to  life  and  his  victory  over  death  had 
brought  an  overwhelming  sense  of  the  divine  presence. 
This  was  only  a  temporal  rescue  of  death's  victim;  for 
this  man  was  still  mortal  and  would,  in  due  time,  die,  but 
in  the  record  of  this  event  we  may  catch  a  few  notes  of 
the  prelude  to  that  great  song  of  triumph  that  Christ's 
own  resurrection  enables  us  to  sing,  as  we  exclaim,  "O 
death,  where  is  thy  victory !"  In  the  record  of  this  event 
we  see  the  dawning  of  the  life  and  immortality  that  are 
brought  to  light  in  the  gospel.  The  multitudes  who  wit- 
nessed the  miracle  could  not  comprehend  its  full  signifi- 
cance, but  it  prepared  the  way  for  greater  and  clearer 
revelation  of  Christ's  power  as  the  life  and  light  of  men. 
In  this  event  there  is  a  prophecy  of  that  time  when  he 
shall  touch  the  bier  on  which  the  dead  of  all  ages  rest,  and 
they  shall  come  forth,  not  to  mortal  but  to  immortal 
life.  If  these  friends  at  Nain  could  glorify  God  as  they 
saw  one  man  reprieved  for  a  few  years  from  the  common 
penalty  of  death,  who  can  fix  an  adequate  measure  of 
adoring  gratitude  for  those  who  see  a  day  when  all  shall 
rise  from  the  dead  to  an  immortal  life.  Every  believer 
should,  with  Paul,  count  all  things  but  loss  in  comparison 
with  the  power  of  Christ's  resurrection.  This  event  only 
seems  important  in  so  far  as  it  leads  up  to  that  greater 
resurrection  of  Christ  and  of  his  people. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  this  city,  at  Endor,  King  Saul 
had  sought  for  a  message  from  the  unseen  world  and,  by 
the  mystery  of  necromancy,  had  seen  the  form  and  heard 
the  words  of  Samuel;    but  they  were  words  of  doom 


158  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

for  the  rebellious,  self-willed  king.  He  had  refused  to 
obey  God's  message,  that  came  to  him  from  the  lips  of 
the  living  Samuel,  and  the  message  from  the  Samuel,  that 
the  wizard  had  summoned  from  the  unseen  world,  crushed 
all  his  hopes,  as  it  said,  "to-morrow  thou  and  thy  sons 
shall  be  with  me."  When  he  heard  this  message,  despair 
filled  his  heart,  and  he  went  forth  to  die  on  the  disastrous 
field  of  Gilboa.  This  scene  at  Nain,  as  it  brings  joy  out 
of  sorrow,  light  out  of  darkness,  life  out  of  death,  is  in 
most  striking  contrast  with  that  sad  scene  at  the  end  of 
Saul's  life.  This  widow's  heart  was  filled  with  joy  as  she 
returned  home  with  her  son  that  had  been  dead  and  was 
alive.  The  believer  may  see  in  this  event  a  prophecy  of 
the  general  resurrection  and  the  life  everlasting. 


XXVI 

A  MESSAGE  FROM  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 
THE  ANOINTING  OF  JESUS 

Luke  7 :  48.     "Thy  sins  are  forgiven." 
Luke  7:  50.    "Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee;   go  in  peace." 
(Mat.  11:1-19;    Luke  7:18-50.) 

OF  the  four  evangelists,  Luke  alone  gives  any  ac- 
count of  the  raising  from  the  dead  of  the  widow's 
son  of  Nain  and  of  the  annointing  of  Jesus  in 
the  house  of  Simon,  the  Pharisee.  Both  Matthew  and 
Luke  tell  of  the  coming  of  the  disciples  of  John  the 
Baptist  with  a  message  of  inquiry.  Luke  places  this 
event  between  the  miracle  at  Nain  and  the  anointing  in 
the  house  of  Simon,  and,  since  Matthew  does  not  tell  of 
either  the  visit  to  Nain  or  of  this  anointing,  we  follow 
the  order  of  events  as  they  are  recorded  by  Luke. 

After  speaking  of  the  profound  impression  created  by 
the  miracle  at  Nain,  Luke  adds,  "This  report  went  forth 
concerning  him  in  the  whole  of  Judea,  and  all  the  region 
round  about."  The  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist  brought 
the  report  to  their  Master,  who  was,  probably,  at  this 
time  confined  in  Herod's  gloomy  castle  in  the  desert  north 
of  the  Dead  Sea.  Having  heard  the  report,  John  sent 
two  of  his  disciples  to  Jesus  directing  them  to  say  "Art 
thou  he  that  cometh,  or  look  we  for  another?" 

When  we  remember  the  Baptist's  clear,  definite  and 
loyal  testimony  concerning  Jesus,  as  he  proclaimed  him 

159 


i6o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  Lamb  of  God,  and,  as  he  afterwards  reproved  the 
jealousy  of  his  own  disciples,  we  are  surprised  that  he 
should  send  such  a  message.  Did  his  faith  waiver,  or  his 
patience  falter?  Had  he  any  real  doubt  as  to  whether 
Jesus  was  the  Christ? 

No  man  is  always  at  his  best.  John  had  been  in  prison 
a  long  time  and  had  received  no  message  from  the  Master, 
and,  when  his  disciples  brought  him  reports  of  what  Jesus 
had  been  doing  for  others,  in  a  moment  of  weakness  and 
impatience,  he  may  have  sent  this  message. 

There  is,  however,  a  more  consistent  and  reasonable 
explanation.  These  disciples  needed  to  have  their  own 
faith  confirmed  and  probably  were  sent  on  their  own  ac- 
count. They  had  seen  their  master  languishing  in  prison, 
and  it  was  natural  they  should  feel  disappointed  because 
Jesus  had  seemed  to  make  no  effort  to  secure  his  release. 
For  their  own  sakes  they  needed  to  come  into  immediate 
contact  with  Jesus  Christ  and  feel  his  direct  power. 

Either  of  these  reasons,  or  the  two  combined,  may  have 
led  John  to  send  a  message  that  seemed  to  suggest  doubt 
or  impatience.  When  Jesus  saw  the  messengers  and 
heard  their  question  he  did  not  answer  immediately,  but 
"in  that  hour  he  cured  many  of  diseases  and  plagues  and 
evil  spirits  and  on  many  that  were  blind,  he  bestowed 
sight."  Then  he  turned  to  John's  messengers  and  said, 
"Go  your  way,  and  tell  John  what  things  ye  have  seen 
and  heard ;  the  blind  receive  their  sight,  the  lame  walk, 
the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the  deaf  hear,  the  dead  are 
raised  up ;  the  poor  have  good  things  preached  to  them. 
And  blessed  is  he  who  shall  find  none  occasion  of  stum- 
bling in  me."  These  works  of  Jesus  constituted  his 
answer  to  John's  question,  and  they  were  a  sufficient 
answer  for  all  who  believed  the  Old  Testament  prophe- 
cies concerning  the  Messiah. 


A  MESSAGE  FROM  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST   i6i 

How  far  the  disciples  of  Jesus  and  the  multitude,  who 
heard  the  message  from  John,  understood  the  exact  mean- 
ing is  doubtful.  They  were  probably  inclined  to  pity 
John  whose  popularity  as  a  preacher  had  waned,  and  who 
had  been  almost  forgotten  while  he  lay  in  Herod's  prison. 
Jesus,  who  was  always  compassionate  saw  some  indi- 
cations of  this  self  complacent  pity  for  what  seemed  to 
be  John's  weakness;  and,  when  the  messengers  of  John 
had  departed,  he  pronounced  on  John  a  eulogy  that  will 
place  his  name  in  a  very  high  place  amongst  the  great 
Christian  heroes  in  all  time  and  in  the  eternal  years.  As 
Jesus  Christ  saw  John,  and  knew  him,  he  was  not  a  reed 
shaken  by  every  passing  wind ;  he  was  not  an  effeminate 
courtier,  clothed  in  soft  raiment  and  loving  ease ;  he  was 
a  prophet  and  more  than  a  prophet;  he  was  the  special 
messenger  of  Jehovah,  and  amongst  all  who  had  been  born 
of  women  there  had  not  arisen  a  greater.  Abraham  was 
the  father  of  the  faithful  and  the  friend  of  God ;  Moses 
talked  with  God;  David  was  a  man  after  God's  own 
heart;  Elijah  stood  alone  on  Mount  Carmel  as  the  fear- 
less prophet  of  Jehovah,  and  Daniel  stood  almost  alone 
for  God  in  Babylon,  but,  in  the  estimate  of  Jesus  Christ, 
not  one  of  them  outranked  John  the  Baptist. 

As  a  result  of  this  tribute  to  John  many  of  those  pres- 
ent, including  publicans  and  those  whom  John  had  bap- 
tized, expressed  their  approval,  but  the  Pharisees  and 
lawyers  present  were  offended.  Addressing  these  un- 
believers, Jesus  said,  "Whereunto  then  shall  I  liken  the 
men  of  this  generation,  and  to  what  are  they  like?  They 
are  like  unto  children  that  sit  in  the  marketplace,  and 
call  one  to  another;  which  say,  "We  piped  unto  you, 
and  ye  did  not  dance;  we  wailed,  and  ye  did  not  weep. 
For  John  the  Baptist  is  come  eating  no  bread  nor  drinking 
wine ;  and  ye  say.  He  hath  a  devil.    The  Son  of  man  is 


i62  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

come  eating  and  drinking ;  and  ye  say,  Behold,  a  glutton- 
ous man,  and  a  winebibber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and 
sinners !" 

After  this  Jesus  was  invited  by  Simon,  the  Pharisee, 
to  dine  with  him.  Where  Simon  lived,  why  he  invited 
Jesus  to  be  his  guest  and  then  treated  him  with  scant 
courtesy,  we  do  not  know.  It  is  evident,  however,  that 
he  was  no  true  friend,  and  it  seems  probable  that  he 
sought  to  emphasize  his  own  prominence  by  patronizing 
a  popular  religious  teacher.  This  proud  Pharisee  could 
condescend  to  invite  Jesus  to  his  table,  but  could,  at  the 
same  time,  show  his  lack  of  respect  for  the  invited  guest 
by  supplying  no  water  for  his  feet,  no  kiss  of  greeting  and 
no  oil  for  anointing  his  head. 

Simon's  character  and  motives  were  very  different 
from  the  character  and  motives  of  Nicodemus.  Nico- 
demus  had  a  real  and  high  regard  for  Jesus,  and  cherished 
a  sincere  friendship  for  him,  but  was  timid,  and  came  to 
him  by  night  for  fear  of  being  reckoned  his  disciple. 
Simon  neither  esteemed  nor  loved  the  great  Teacher,  but 
he  saw  his  popularity  and  power  as  a  teacher  and  healer, 
and  he  made  an  outward  show  of  friendship  for  one 
whom  he  really  despised. 

Jesus  accepted  Simon's  invitation  and,  when  they  sat 
at  meet  in  Simon's  house,  a  woman  of  the  city,  who  was 
a  sinner,  when  she  knew  that  Jesus  was  in  the  house, 
brought  an  alabaster  cruse  of  ointment,  and  standing  be- 
hind him  as  he  sat  or  reclined  at  the  table,  wept,  wet  his 
feet  with  her  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  her  hair,  and, 
kissing  them,  anointed  them  with  the  ointment.  Where 
this  woman  came  from,  how  her  heart  had  been  touched 
by  our  Lord,  we  are  not  told.  She  had  probably  heard 
Christ's  teachings  that  day,  and  her  heart  had  been 
touched  when  she  thought  of  her  own  great  sinfulness. 


A  MESSAGE  FROM  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST    163 

It  is  probable,  too,  that  Our  Lord  had  that  day  uttered 
with  infinite  and  irresistible  pathos  those  wonderful 
words,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy 
laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my  yoke  upon  you 
and  learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ;  and 
ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  soul." 

Matthew  records  these  words  in  connection  with  his 
report  of  Christ's  discourse  concerning  John  the  Baptist. 
If  this  woman  heard  them  she  could  not  fail  to  believe 
that  they  were  for  her.  She  came  with  a  broken,  contrite 
heart,  knowing  that  she  would  not  be  welcomed  by  Simon, 
but  longing  to  express  her  deep  and  loving  gratitude  to 
Jesus. 

When  Simon  saw  her  he  said  within  himself, "Thisman, 
if  he  were  a  prophet,  would  have  perceived  who  and  what 
manner  of  woman  this  is  who  touched  him."  Jesus, 
knowing  his  thoughts,  showed  him  that  he  knew  the 
heart  of  a  proud  Pharisee  as  well  as  the  heart  of  a  sin- 
ful woman.  He  did  not  at  first  address  the  woman,  but, 
turning  to  his  host,  said,  "Simon,  I  have  something  to  say 
unto  thee."  Simon  replied,  "Master  say  on,"  Jesus  said, 
"A  certain  lender  had  two  debtors ;  the  one  owed  five 
hundred  pence  and  the  other  fifty.  When  they  had  not 
wherewith  to  pay,  he  forgave  them  both.  Which  of  them 
therefore  will  love  him  most?"  To  this  question,  Simon 
answered,  "He,  I  suppose,  to  whom  he  forgave  the  most." 
Jesus  replied,  "Thou  hast  rightly  judged";  and,  turning 
to  the  woman,  he  said,  "Simon,  seest  thou  this  woman? 
I  entered  into  thy  house,  thou  gavest  me  no  water  for  my 
feet.  My  head  with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint ;  but  she 
wiped  them  with  her  hair.  Thou  gavest  me  no  kiss  ;  but 
she,  since  the  time  I  came  in,  hath  not  ceased  to  kiss  my 
feet.  My  head  with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint;  but  she 
hath  anointed  my  feet  with  ointment.    Wherefore  I  say 


i64  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

unto  thee,  her  sins,  which  are  many,  are  forgiven,  for 
she  loved  much ;  but  to  whom  little  is  forgiven  the  same 
loveth  little."  Then,  speaking  to  the  woman,  he  said, 
"Thy  sins  are  forgiven.  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee;  go 
in  peace." 

By  this,  the  first  recorded  parable  of  Jesus,  and  by  its 
application  to  Simon,  Jesus  called  the  Pharisee  down 
from  the  judgment  seat  that  he  had  usurped,  and  placed 
him  before  the  bar  of  his  own  conscience,  laying  bare  his 
cold,  hard,  censorious,  self-righteous,  compassionless 
heart.  By  this  parable  he  showed  that  Simon  was  more 
guilty  in  God's  sight  than  this  sinful,  but  penitent  woman. 
The  world  does  not  forgive  such  sins  as  this  woman  had 
committed,  and  the  world  does  not  regard  Simon  the 
Pharisee  as  a  sinner.  One  is  disreputable  and  the  other 
is  respectable.  God's  judgment  is  different.  In  his  sight 
both  are  sinners,  but  the  penitent  woman  is  forgiven. 
The  woman  goes  out  into  the  world,  branded  with  the 
"scarlet  letter"  to  live  a  life  of  loving  self-sacrifice ;  and 
Simon  the  Pharisee  goes  out  to  accuse  Jesus  Christ  of 
wrong  doing,  joining  with  those  who  sat  at  meat  .with  him, 
as  they  say,  "Who  is  this  that  even  forgives  sins  ?" 

Had  Jesus  Christ  been  less  than  he  was,  had  he  been 
guided  only  by  worldly  wisdom,  he  would  have  rebuked 
the  woman  and  gained  the  good  will  and  respect  of  the 
Pharisee.  But  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  the  perfect  man ; 
he  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  and  to  bear  witness 
to  the  truth. 

Of  the  ancient  tradition  that  this  woman  was  Mary  of 
Magdala,  we  need  not  speak.  The  tradition  seems  entirely 
inconsistent  with  the  inspired  narrative,  but  no  one  has 
been  able  to  prove  conclusively  that  it  is  false,  and  nothing 
could  be  gained  by  discussing  the  question  here.  Her 
sins  were  forgiven ;  her  faith  had  saved  her ;   she  could 


A  MESSAGE  FROM  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST    165 

go  in  peace  until  called  to  sit  down  as  a  welcome  guest  at 
the  great  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb.  In  the  record  of 
this  incident  there  is  encouragement  for  every  penitent 
sinner,  and  there  is  condemnation  for  all  selfish,  self- 
righteous  and  uncharitable  judges  of  their  fellowmen. 

At  the  beginning  of  his  public  ministry  Jesus  attended  a 
marriage  feast  where  he  performed  his  first  miracle.  By 
this  act  he,  not  only  emphasized  his  interest  in  this  divine 
and  sacred  ordinance,  but  indicated  that  in  the  establish- 
ing of  his  earthly  kingdom  the  family  should  have  the 
highest  place  as  a  social  institution,  and  should  be  the 
real  unit  of  both  church  and  state.  In  the  sermon  on  the 
Mount  he  lifted  the  seventh  commandment  above  the 
mere  letter  and  showed  that  it  applied  to  every  secret 
thought  as  well  as  to  the  outward  act.  And,  now,  in  this, 
his  first  parable,  he,  not  only  rebukes  his  compassionless 
and  censorious  host,  but,  at  the  same  time,  puts  the  stamp 
of  divine  condemnation  on  the  world's  treatment  of  the 
penitent  woman  branded  with  the  "scarlet  letter." 


XXVII 
TEACHING  AND  HEALING  IN  GALILEE 

Luke  8:  i.  "And  it  came  to  pass  soon  afterwarsd  that  he  went 
about  through  cities  and  villages  preaching  and  bringing  the  good 
tidings  of  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

(Matthew  9:  18-34;   Mark  5:22-43;  Luke  8:  1-3  and  40-56.) 

AFTER  reporting  the  anointing  of  Jesus  by  a 
penitent  woman  in  the  house  of  Simon  the  Phari- 
see, Luke  adds  a  general  statement  that  our  Lord, 
with  his  twelve  disciples,  with  the  woman  whom  he  had 
healed,  and  with  many  others,  went  through  cities  and 
villages  preaching  the  good  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  In  the  light  of  this  general  statement  we  see  Jesus 
going  forth  from  one  of  the  cities  west  of  the  Sea  of 
Galilee  on  a  preachng  tour  that  ends  at  Capernaum,  his 
own  city.  Without  taking  up  any  of  the  perplexing  ques- 
tions concerning  the  exact  order  of  events  at  this  time, 
we  include  in  this  chapter  the  raising  of  the  daughter  of 
Jairus,  the  healing  of  the  woman  who  touched  Jesus  on 
his  way  to  the  house  of  Jairus,  the  healing  of  two  blind 
men  and  of  a  dumb  man.  The  lessons  taught  by  these 
miracles  are  not,  in  any  way,  limited  by  consideration  of 
time  or  place,  and  we  need  not  be  troubled  because  we 
cannot  determine  the  times  and  places. 

The  first  three  evangelists  tell  of  the  raising  of  the 
daughter  of  Jairus  and  of  the  healing  of  an  invalid  wom- 
an. Jairus  was  the  ruler  of  a  synagogue  either  in  Ca- 
pernaum or  in  one  of  the  cities  near  the  western  shore  of 

166 


TEACHING  AND  HEALING  IN  GALILEE    167 

the  sea  of  Galilee.  He  may  have  shared  the  Pharisees' 
prejudice  against  Jesus,  but,  if  he  did,  it  was  overcome 
by  his  deep  anxiety  for  his  daughter,  a  young  girl  of 
twelve  years,  who  "lay  dying" ;  and,  in  his  deep  distress, 
he  came  to  Jesus,  and  falling  down  at  his  feet  besought 
him  to  come  to  his  house.  Jesus  at  once  followed  him, 
but,  as  he  was  pressing  his  way  through  the  crowd,  a  sick 
woman  who  had,  for  twelve  years  and  at  great  expense, 
sought  in  vain  for  relief  from  physicians,  and  had  suf- 
fered many  things  and  had  spent  all  her  means,  came  be- 
hind him  and  touched  him  as  he  passed.  She  was  saying 
in  her  heart,  "If  I  but  touch  his  garment  I  shall  be  whole." 
Instantly  she  was  healed  of  her  plague.  To  the  surprise 
of  his  disciples,  and,  no  doubt,  to  the  surprise  of  the 
woman,  Jesus,  turning  about,  said,  "Who  touched  me?" 
The  disciples  replied,  "Thou  seest  the  multitude  throng- 
ing thee,  and  sayest  thou  who  touched  me?"  But  Jesus 
said,  "Some  one  did  touch  me."  Then  the  woman  came 
trembling  and  falling  down  before  him,  declared  in  the 
presence  of  the  multitude  for  what  cause  she  had  touched 
him,  and  how  she  had  been  healed.  This  timid  woman 
had  been  concealing  her  sorrow  and  would  have  concealed 
her  joy,  but  when  she  had  made  her  confession,  Jesus  said 
to  her,  "Daughter,  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole,  go  in 
peace,  and  be  whole  of  thy  plague."  Her  public  confes- 
sion brought  honour  to  the  great  Physician,  helped  others 
and  brought  great  joy  to  her  own  heart. 

During  the  delay  caused  by  this  event,  messengers  came 
from  the  house  of  Jairus,  saying,  "Thy  daughter  is  dead ; 
why  troublest  thou  the  Master  any  further?"  But  what 
Jairus  had  seen  in  the  healing  of  this  woman  led  him  to 
hope  even  against  hope,  and  he  said,  "My  daughter  is 
even  now  dead;  but  come  and  lay  thy  hands  upon  her 
and  she  shall  live."    Jesus,  who  had  heard  the  dishearten- 


i68  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ing  message  from  Jairus'  house,  said  to  him,  "Fear  not, 
only  believe."  Faith  had  healed  the  suffering  woman, 
and  this  father's  faith  could  conquer  death. 

When  Jesus  came  to  the  house  he  took  with  him  only 
Peter,  James  and  John  and  the  father  and  mother  of  the 
maiden.  To  the  weeping  friends,  he  said,  "Weep  not,  the 
child  is  not  dead,  but  sleeping."  When  they  laughed  in 
scornful  contempt,  he  took  the  child  by  the  hand,  saying, 
"Maiden  arise."  Immediately  the  girl  arose  and  walked. 
Then  Jesus  directed  the  amazed  parents  to  give  her  some- 
thing to  eat,  commanding  them  also  to  tell  no  man  what 
he  had  done. 

The  command  to  not  publish  abroad  this  and  other 
miracles  was  probably  designed  to  prevent  the  people 
from  placing  too  much  emphasis  on  the  miracle  and  over- 
looking what  was  more  important.  Many  of  those  who 
were  healed,  moved  by  personal  vanity,  would  place  too 
much  emphasis  on  the  miracle  losing  sight  of  the  great 
mission  of  the  Son  of  God  as  the  Saviour  of  men.  His 
miracles  were  convincing  credentials  attesting  his  divine 
mission  and  authority,  and  they  revealed  his  compassion 
for  suffering  humanity,  but  they  were  only  the  credentials 
and  not  the  essentials  of  his  work  as  the  Christ.  His 
great  purposes  of  love  looked  beyond  these  temporal  bless- 
ings that  he  was  dispensing  so  generously  and  so  tenderly. 
He  came  to  open  the  eyes  of  faith  that  men  might  see 
God  as  their  heavenly  Father. 

"As  Jesus  passed  by  from  thence  two  blind  men  fol- 
lowed him,  crying,  Have  mercy  on  us,  thou  son  of  David, 
and  when  he  was  come  into  the  house  the  blind  men  came 
to  him."  Jesus  said  to  them,  "Believe  ye  that  I  am  able 
to  do  this,"  and  when  they  said,  "Yea,  Lord,"  he  touched 
their  eyes,  saying,  "According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto 
you."   Immediately  their  eyes  were  opened. 


TEACHING  AND  HEALING  IN  GALILEE    169 

No  information  is  given  as  to  the  time  or  place  of  this 
miracle.  The  only  thing  to  be  particularly  noticed  about 
it  is  the  important  part  assigned  to  the  faith  of  these  men. 
Their  faith  was  the  condition  of  their  being  healed.  Their 
faith  had  been  indicated  by  their  coming  to  Jesus,  follow- 
ing him  and  crying  for  help ;  but  he  also  asked  of  them  a 
definite  profession  of  belief  in  his  ability  to  heal,  and  then 
said,  "Be  it  unto  you  according  to  your  faith." 

In  immediate  connection  with  his  account  of  the  healing 
of  these  blind  men  who  came  to  Jesus  in  the  house,  Mat- 
thew says,  "As  they  went  forth  there  was  brought  unto 
him  a  dumb  man  possessed  with  a  demon."  The  demon 
was  exorcised  and  the  dumb  man  spake,  and  the  multi- 
tudes marvelled,  saying,  "It  was  never  so  seen  in  Israel." 
But  the  Pharisees  took  exception,  and  said,  "By  the 
prince  of  the  demons  casteth  he  out  demons :"  It  is 
probable  that  the  Pharisees  did  not  say  this  publicly  at  this 
time,  but  whispered  it  among  themselves  and  afterwards 
said  it  publicly. 

When  the  evangelists  describe  the  emotions  of  Jesus  as 
he  looked  on  sinning,  suffering  humanity,  they  use  the 
word  "compassion,"  and  that  word  is  well  adapted  to 
describe  the  great  motive  power  of  the  Christian  church. 
Nevertheless,  the  preeminent  word  in  the  New  Testament 
is  the  word  "faith."  Faith  forms  the  vital  link  between 
the  sinner  and  his  Saviour.  Three  of  these  miracles  seem 
to  be  especially  designed  to  emphasize  the  importance  of 
faith.  The  woman  who  was  healed  had  shown  her  faith 
by  touching  the  border  of  Jesus'  cloak,  and  when  she  had 
made  her  confession,  Jesus  said  to  her,  "Thy  faith  hath 
made  thee  whole.  Go  in  peace.  When  Jairus  said  "My 
daughter  is  even  now  dead ;  but  come  and  lay  thy  hands 
on  her  and  she  shall  live,"  Jesus  said,  "Fear  not,  only  be- 
lieve."    Faith  was  the  great  essential.    When  the  blind 


170  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

men  had  shown  their  faith  by  following  Jesus  and  crying 
out  "Have  mercy  on  us,"  Jesus  said,  "Believe  ye  that  I  am 
able  to  do  this?"  and  when  they  said,  "Yes,  Lord,"  Jesus 
said,  "According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you."  Faith  is 
the  instrument,  channel  and  essential  condition  of  the 
exercise  of  saving  power. 

"More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams.     Wherefore  let  thy  voice 
Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day ; 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  and  goats 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain. 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend. 
For  so  the  whole  round  world  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God." 


XXVIII 

TEACHING  BY  PARABLES 

Matthew  13:3.  "And  he  spake  to  them  many  things  in  para- 
bles." 

(Mat.  13:  1-52;   Mark  4:  1-34;   Luke  8:4-18.) 

JESUS,  with  his  disciples,  had  returned  to  Capernatim 
and  resumed  his  teachings  by  the  seaside  on  a  day 
that  was  to  mark  a  new  epoch  in  the  development  of 
his  kingdom.  He  came  forth  from  the  house,  probably 
early  in  the  morning,  and  sat  by  the  sea  and  taught  the 
people  that  had  gathered  about  him.  The  crowd  increased 
until  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  get  into  a  boat  and 
speak  to  the  people  as  they  stood  on  the  beach. 

Three  evangelists  give  reports  of  this  day's  teaching, 
and  they  all  say  that  he  taught  by  parables,  and  that  the 
change  in  manner  of  teaching  was  so  marked  that  it  led 
the  disciples  to  ask  why  he  spake  in  parables.  With  the 
exception  of  the  parable  of  the  debtor  in  the  house  of 
Simon  the  Pharisee,  Jesus  had  used  no  parables  until  this 
time.  In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  he  had  revealed  the 
spirit  and  aim  of  the  Messianic  kingdom  in  very  simple 
and  direct  language,  but  this  discourse  is  made  up  of  para- 
bles and  of  what  seemed,  even  to  the  disciples,  dark  say- 
ings. 

When  the  disciples  asked  their  Master  why  he  spake 
in  parables  he  replied,  "Unto  you  it  is  given  to  know  the 
mysteries  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  but  to  them  it  is 
not  given.    Therefore  speak  I  to  them  in  parable;  b^- 

171 


172  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

cause  seeing  they  see  not,  and  hearing  they  hear  not, 
neither  do  they  understand.  And  unto  them  is  fulfilled 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah,  which  saith, 

"By  hearing  ye  shall  hear,  and  shall  in  no  wise  understand, 
And  seeing  ye  shall  see,  and  in  no  wise  perceive; 
For  this  people's  heart  is  waxed  gross, 
And  their  ears  are  dull  of  hearing, 
And  their  eyes  they  have  closed. 
Lest  haply  they  should  perceive  with  their  eyes, 
And  hear  with  their  ears. 
And  understand  with  their  hearts. 
And  should  turn. 
And  I  should  heal  them." 

Jesus'  miracles  and  teaching  had  attracted  and  favor- 
ably impressed  the  people,  but  they  had  also  developed 
and  crystalized  opposition  on  the  part  of  scribes,  Phari- 
sees and  Jewish  religious  teachers.  These  religious  teach- 
ers could  not  deny  the  miracles,  but  they  began  to  sug- 
gest to  the  people  that  Jesus  was  in  league  with  the  pow- 
ders of  evil,  and  that  he  cast  out  demons  by  the  prince  of 
the  demons.  It  was  not  possible  to  reach  these  hard 
hearts  by  direct  statements  concerning  the  kingdom  of 
God;  therefore,  the  great  Teacher  spoke  to  them  in 
parables,  as  Isaiah  had  predicted,  when  he  said,  "I  will 
open  my  mouth  in  parables,  I  will  utter  things  hidden 
from  the  foundations  of  the  world." 

It  might  not  be  amiss  to  remind  the  reader  of  the  dif- 
ference between  parables  and  fables.  The  fable,  like  the 
parable,  seeks  to  throw  light  on  the  unknown  by  means  of 
the  known,  but,  while  the  fable  uses  similitudes  that  are 
not  within  the  range  of  ordinary  possibility,  representing 
trees  and  animals  as  talking  like  men,  the  parable  takes 
similitudes  from  the  ordinary  experiences  and  observa- 
tions of  life.     There  are  very  few  fables  in  the  sacred 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES  173 

Scriptures,  but  there  is  one  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  the 
address  of  Jotham  to  the  men  of  Shechem.     (Judges  9: 

6-I5-) 

Parables  are  adapted  to  carry  wholesome,  but  unwel- 
come truths  into  prejudiced  minds  that  would  exclude 
direct  statement ;  and  men  find  themselves  committed  to  a 
judgment  or  course  of  action  before  selfishness  or  preju- 
dice can  organize  resistance,  as  in  the  case  of  Nathan's 
parable  to  king  David.  It  was  the  unreceptiveness  on 
the  part  of  his  hearers  that  led  Christ  to  use  so  many 
parables.  Many  of  them  were  so  blinded  by  prejudice 
that  they  would  not  listen  to  a  direct  proclamation  of  the 
truth,  and  the  parabolic  method  was  adopted  in  order  to 
meet  their  unreceptiveness.  This  reason  for  their  use 
does  not  exclude  other  reasons. 

The  advantage  of  teaching  by  parables  or  by  any  kind 
of  illustrations,  is  greatest  when  the  teacher's  knowledge 
is  vastly  superior  to  that  of  the  learner.  This  fact  ren- 
ders the  parables  of  Christ  unique.  He  knew  perfectly 
the  great  spiritual  realm  of  which  his  disciples  were  very 
ignorant,  and  he  could  take  the  events  and  observations 
of  every  day  life  and  give  to  his  disciples  some  conception 
of  what  their  eyes  had  not  seen.  He  had  come  from  God 
and  testified  in  regard  to  things  of  which  he  had  perfect 
knowledge. 

The  Jews  were  accustomed  to  teach  by  parables,  but 
their  parables  differed  from  the  parables  of  Christ  in  that 
they  sought  to  throw  earthly  light  on  heavenly  things, 
while  He  sought  to  throw  heavenly  light  on  earthly  things. 
The  Jewish  teacher  applied  sensual,  temporal  limits  and 
measures  to  spiritual,  eternal  verities,  while  Christ  lifted 
the  sensual  and  the  temporal  up  into  the  bright  light  of  the 
spiritual  and  eternal.  Jewish  teachers,  by  their  parables, 
sought  to  bring  God  down  to  the  level  of  men,  while 


174  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Christ  sought  to  Hft  men  up  into  the  knowledge  and  fel- 
lowship of  God.  Jewish  parables  would  broaden  and 
etherealize  human  selfishness,  but  Christ's  parables  re- 
vealed divine  compassion,  and  sought  to  make  men  par- 
takers of  the  divine  nature.  In  brief,  the  parables  of 
Christ  were  designed  and  adapted  to  reveal  to  men  the 
spiritual,  eternal  kingdom  of  God.  Christ's  kingdom  was 
not  of  this  world  and  his  parables  were  designed  and 
adapted  to  illumine  the  things  that  are  in  this  world,  so 
that  they  might  become  types  and  shadows  of  spiritual 
things. 

While  all  our  Lord's  parables  are  designed  and  adapted 
to  reveal  some  phase  or  characteristic  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  they  seem  to  fall  into  classes  or  series  that  cor- 
respond with  the  different  stages  in  the  development  of 
Jewish  opposition.  The  first  series,  comprising  seven  or 
eight  parables,  exhibit  the  elementary  truths  that  con- 
cern the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  ;  the  second  series, 
comprising  about  fifteen  parables,  have  in  them  a  con- 
troversial element  not  found  in  the  first ;  and,  in  the  third 
series,  comprising  eight  parables,  the  judicial  element 
predominates  and  the  evangelical  disappears. 

The  first  series  of  parables  are  reported  in  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  the  gospel  by  Matthew,  and  partially  reported 
also  by  Mark  and  Luke.  Some  of  them  were  addressed 
to  the  multitude  by  the  seaside  and  afterwards  explained 
privately  to  the  disciples ;  others  seem  to  have  been  ad- 
dressed only  to  the  twelve  disciples.  They  are  all  evan- 
gelical, and,  though  spoken  after  the  opposition  had  as- 
sumed a  malignant  form,  they  do  not  seem  to  be  contro- 
versial. 

The  first  great  parable  is  that  of  the  sower.  In  it  a 
man  sows  seeds,  some  of  which  falls  by  the  wayside  and 
is  devoured  by  birds,  some  in  rocky  places,  where  it 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES      175 

springs  up  but  soon  withers ;  some  falls  amongst  thorns 
and  is  choked,  and  some  falls  on  good  ground  yielding 
an  abundant  harvest.  As  we  read  this  parable,  we  may 
see  Jesus  sitting  in  the  prow  of  the  boat,  speaking  to  a 
great  multitude  of  people  as  they  stand  on  the  beach.  He 
was  probably  in  full  view  of  a  field  where  such  scenes  as 
he  described  were  enacted  every  season.  It  is  possible 
that  he  was  looking  on  just  such  a  scene  as  his  words 
present  when  he  said,  "Behold,  the  sower  went  forth  to 
sow." 

This  parable  seems  very  plain  to  us  who  have  heard  its 
explanation,  and  we  can  see  clearly  how  it  reveals  the 
mysteries  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  it  seemed  to  those 
who  first  heard  it  very  obscure  and  incomprehensible. 
They  would  ask  what  this  sowing  and  growing  had  to  do 
with  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
enthroning  of  the  Son  of  David.  When  they  attempted  to 
analyze  the  parable  they  did  not  recognize  either  the  sower 
or  the  seed,  and  how  could  they  know  what  was  meant 
by  the  stony,  thorny,  exposed  and  good  ground,  or  the 
abundant  harvest?  Their  knowledge  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  was  not  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  understand 
the  parable  of  the  great  Teacher.  Nevertheless,  there  was 
something  to  interest  all  hearers  and  to  suggest  inquiry ; 
and,  when  the  disciples  asked  and  received  an  explanation, 
the  parable,  instead  of  hindering  them,  helped  them  to 
understand  the  mystery  of  the  kingdom.  Some  seed  fell 
by  the  wayside  that  day,  some  in  thorny  places,  some  on 
stony  ground,  but  some  also  on  good  ground.  Christ's 
hearers  belonged  to  two  classes,  believers  in  his  divine 
mission  and  authority,  and  unbelievers,  who  attributed 
his  miracles  to  demoniacal  power.  To  those  who  be- 
lieved in  him  the  parables  were  a  revelation  of  the  mystery 
of  the  kingdom;    to  those  whose  eyes  were  blinded  by 


176  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

unbelief  the  parables  were  the  dark  sayings  of  Isaiah's 
prophecy. 

This  great  parable  reveals  God's  method  of  establishing 
his  kingdom  in  the  world.  There  can  be  no  harvest  with- 
out the  sowing  of  the  seed ;  but  the  good  seed  may  fail 
to  yield  because  it  falls  where  it  will  become  the  food  of 
birds,  or  because  it  falls  among  thorns,  or  in  stony  ground. 
The  soil  does  not  produce  without  the  seed,  and  the  seed 
may  fail  for  lack  of  good  soil.  The  kingdom  of  God 
does  not  spring  up  in  any  heart  without  the  good  seed  of 
the  word ;  and  the  good  seed  of  truth  may  fall  into  hearts 
where  it  is  not  appreciated  and  the  evil  one  snatches  it 
away ;  or  it  may  fall  into  hearts  so  filled  with  the  pleas- 
ures of  this  world  that  it  will  be  choked ;  or,  it  may  fall 
into  hearts  with  so  little  spiritual  soil  that  permanent, 
mature  growth  is  impossible.  The  words  with  which  the 
parable  close,  as  we  find  them  recorded  in  the  gospel  by 
Mark,  seem  to  be  the  echo  of  the  parable  as  well  as  the 
words  of  the  great  Teacher.  From  the  parable,  as  well 
as  from  the  lips  of  the  Master,  come  the  words,  "Take 
heed  how  ye  hear." 

Whether  the  parable,  recorded  only  by  Mark,  concern- 
ing the  unobserved  growth  of  the  seed  was  spoken  to 
the  multitude,  or  only  to  the  disciples  and  at  another  time, 
we  do  not  know.  It  seems  to  follow  the  parable  of  the 
sower  very  closely  and  very  naturally.  The  parable  of  the 
sower  shows  how  the  seed  of  the  kingdom  is  cast  into  the 
soil,  and  this  parable  shows  how  it  silently  and  unob- 
served, develops,  bearing,  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear, 
then  the  full  wheat  ready  for  the  harvest.  The  establish- 
ing of  Christ's  kingdom  includes  patient  waiting  as  well 
as  activity  in  sowing  the  seed.  There  are  laws  of  develop- 
ment in  the  spiritual  as  well  as  in  the  material  world. 
There  is  seed  time  and  there  is  time  for  growth,  and  wt 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES  177 

must  await  the  harvest.  During  this  time  the  sower  leaves 
the  seed  to  develop  according  to  the  laws  of  seed  and 
soil,  dependant  on  the  sunshine  and  the  showers. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  all  the  parables  grouped 
together  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  Mat- 
thew were  spoken  on  one  day,  or,  as  Mark  seems  to  sug- 
gest, at  different  times  "as  they  were  able  to  hear  them." 
Farrar  says  that  so  many  parables  at  one  time  would  have 
bewildered  the  multitude.  But  the  same  may  be  said  of 
that  great  discourse  concerning  the  kingdom,  that  is 
called  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  In  view  of  what  we 
know  of  Christ's  usual  method  of  teaching,  and  of  the 
intimate  connection  of  these  parables,  it  seems  most  prob- 
able that  the  parables  of  the  sower,  of  the  tares,  of  the 
mustard  seed  and  of  the  leaven,  were  addressed  to  the 
multitude  as  Christ  sat  in  the  boat  and  the  people  stood 
on  the  beach ;  and  that,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day, 
"in  the  house,"  the  parable  of  the  growth  of  the  seed,  as 
reported  by  Mark,  and  the  parables  of  the  hidden  treas- 
ure, of  the  goodly  pearl,  and  of  the  net  were  spoken  to 
the  disciples.  There  is  evident  progress  in  the  parables. 
In  the  first  we  see  the  sower,  in  the  second  the  growth, 
in  the  third  another  kind  of  seed,  and,  in  the  fourth,  the 
vast  expansion  from  the  very  small  beginnings  of  the 
kingdom. 

In  the  first  parable  there  is  only  one  kind  of  seed,  but 
different  soils.  In  the  second,  reported  by  Matthew, 
there  are  two  kinds  of  seed,  good  and  bad,  for  "the  king- 
dom of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  man  that  sowed  good  seed 
in  his  field;  but  while  men  slept,  his  enemy  came  and 
sowed  tares  also  among  the  wheat,  and  went  away." 

This  picture  is  said  to  be  true  to  nature,  or  facts  of  ob- 
servation since  such  deeds  of  enmity  are  common  in  the 
eastern  country. 


178  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Had  the  Jews  been  intelligent  students  of  their  own 
Scriptures,  they  would  have  been  able  to  interpret  this 
parable,  for  the  story  of  the  falsehood  of  Satan  in  Eden 
is  found  in  the  outline  of  this  picture.  God  had  sown  the 
good  seed  of  truth  in  the  heart  of  man,  but  Satan  came 
and  sowed  falsehood,  and  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the 
enemies  of  the  kingdom  have  grown  together  from  this 
sowing  in  every  succeeding  generation.  Nevertheless, 
this  parable  seemed,  even  to  the  disciples,  the  most  ob- 
scure, and  they  asked  especially  about  its  meaning  and 
received  from  their  Master  this  explanation:  "He  that 
soweth  the  good  seed  is  the  Son  of  man ;  and  the  field  is 
the  world;  and  the  good  seed,  these  are  the  sons  of  the 
kingdom  ;  and  the  tares  are  the  sons  of  the  evil  one ;  and 
the  enemy  that  sowed  them  is  the  devil ;  and  the  harvest 
is  the  end  of  the  world ;  and  the  reapers  are  the  angels." 

The  Jews  had  accused  Jesus  of  acting  in  league  with 
the  evil  one  and  this  parable,  while  it  is  not  controversial 
in  form,  refutes  that  absurd  theory  as  it  reveals  the 
definite  and  irrepressible  conflict  between  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  and  predicts  the 
final  separation  of  the  children  of  the  kingdom  from  the 
enemies  of  the  kingdom.  Good  and  bad  are  growing  to- 
gether in  this  world,  but  in  the  harvest  time  the  Son  of 
man  will  send  forth  his  angels  to  gather  out  of  his  king- 
dom whatsoever  causes  stumbling  or  does  iniquity,  and 
will  cast  them  into  the  furnace  of  fire,  leaving  the  right- 
eous to  "shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
Father." 

In  explaining  this  parable,  our  Lord  was  careful  to  say 
that  the  field  was  the  world.  It  does  not,  therefore,  for- 
bid the  spiritual  disciplining  of  the  children  of  the  king- 
dom by  the  visible  church  and  the  exclusion  of  false  pro- 
fessors from  the  visible  church.    It  does  condemn  every 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES       179 

attempt  to  make  an  unmixed  kingdom  in  this  world  by 
destroying  the  tares  before  the  end  of  the  world.  The 
tares  and  the  wheat  have  been  sown  together  and  they 
must  be  left  to  grow  together  until  the  time  comes  to 
garner  the  wheat  and  burn  the  tares. 

The  mystery  of  sin  is  not  explained  in  this  parable; 
but  it  is  clearly  recognized  and  the  entrance  of  sin  into 
this  world  is  attributed  to  the  devil  who  sowed  bad  seed 
in  God's  world.  This  parable  is  a  miniature  picture  of 
the  world's  history  as  it  may  be  traced  in  the  Bible. 
There  are  two  sowers,  God  and  the  evil  one ;  there  are 
two  kinds  of  seed,  true  and  false,  and  they  are  sown  in 
the  same  world,  where  they  grow  together  and  cannot  be 
wholly  separated.  But  the  time  is  coming  when  the 
works  of  the  evil  one  will  be  destroyed  and  the  righteous 
shall  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Father. 
This  parable  is  a  call  for  patient,  cheerful,  hopeful  wait- 
ing. 

The  first  parables  exhibited  the  establishing  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  in  this  world  as  the  sowing,  growing 
and  intermingling  of  good  and  bad  seed,  while  the  para- 
bles of  the  mustard  seed  and  the  leaven  exhibit  the  estab- 
lishing of  the  kingdom  as  a  development  of  great  power 
from  very  small  beginnings.  As  the  mustard  seed,  one 
of  the  small  seeds  planted  in  the  garden,  becomes  the 
greatest  of  garden  herbs,  so  the  little  seed  of  the  king- 
dom is  destined  to  become  the  greatest  power  in  the 
world.  This  was  as  dark  a  saying  as  the  words  that 
afterwards  puzzled  the  Jews  when  Christ  said,  "I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  to  me."  So 
too,  the  little  leaven,  leavening  the  three  measures  of 
meal,  was  an  apt  illustration  of  the  mighty,  silent  and 
expansive  force  of  the  seed  of  Christ's  kingdom.  It  is 
very  easy  for  us,  who  have  witnessed  the  growth  of  the 


i8o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

kingdom,  to  see  the  beauty  and  aptness  of  these  parables ; 
but,  when  they  were  first  uttered,  they  seemed  so  incom- 
prehensible that  even  the  disciples  did  not  so  grasp  them 
as  to  intelligently  inquire  concerning  their  meaning. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that,  while  both  these 
parables  illustrate  the  growth  of  the  kingdom  from  small 
beginnings,  the  parable  of  the  mustard  seed  seems  pe- 
culiarly adapted  to  exhibit  the  marvelous  expansion  of 
the  seed  of  the  kingdom,  while  that  of  the  leaven  exhibits 
its  transforming  power.  Both  work  silently  and  might- 
ily, but  each  in  its  own  way.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  to 
fill  the  whole  earth  and  shelter  all  nations,  and  leaven 
with  the  leaven  of  righteousness  all  who  come  under  its 
influence. 

If,  as  we  have  assumed,  these  parables  were  spoken  to 
the  multitude  by  the  seaside  in  the  forenoon,  we  may 
now  see  Jesus  dismissing  the  multitude  and  going  with 
the  disciples  "into  the  house"  at  Capernaum  where  he 
explained  the  parables  of  the  sower  and  of  the  tares  and 
then  added  the  parable  of  the  hidden  treasure  and  of  the 
net  let  down  into  the  sea. 

The  parables  of  the  treasure  and  of  the  pearl  were 
adapted  to  impress  upon  the  disciples  the  necessity  for 
seeking  and  appropriating  the  kingdom.  It  was  to  be  so 
valued  that  a  man  would  rejoice  in  its  discovery,  and  be 
willing  to  sell  all  his  possessions  in  order  to  buy  it.  This 
parable  shows  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  only  for 
those  who  are  willing  to  make  such  sacrifices  for  it  as  the 
pearl  seeker  makes  for  a  pearl  of  great  price. 

The  parable  of  the  net  warned  the  disciples  against 
trusting  to  the  mere  fact  that  they  were  disciples.  The 
net  let  down  into  the  world  would  gather  good  and  bad, 
but  there  would  come  a  time  of  separation.  The  king- 
dom of  Christ  now  in  the  world  comprises  more  than 


TEACHING  BY  PARABLES 


i«i 


four  hundred  million  nominal  Christians  but  these  are 
only  the  gross  contents  of  the  net,  including  the  good  and 
the  bad. 

This  was  a  great  day  in  the  history  of  our  Lord's  teach- 
ing. These  parables  did  not  astonish  and  excite  the  multi- 
tude who  heard  them  so  much  as  did  some  of  his  mighty 
works,  but  we  may  safely  say  that  they  exerted  more  in- 
fluence on  the  world.  Christians,  living  in  this  age,  see 
Christ's  miracles  as  events  that  occurred  far  away  in  the 
dim  vista  of  the  past;  but  these  parables  seem  as  fresh 
and  appropriate  as  if  they  were  spoken  for  the  first  time 
in  our  own  age.  They  increase  in  aptness  and  become 
more  luminous  as  they  come  to  each  succeeding  genera- 
tion. They  seem  to  have  been  spoken  for  and  to  us 
rather  than  for  and  to  the  men  and  women  who  walked 
by  Galilee  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  ago. 


XXIX 
THE  MOTHER  AND  BRETHREN  OF  JESUS 

Matthew  12 :  50.     "Whosoever  shall  do  the  will  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven,  he  is  my  brother,  and  sister  and  mother." 
(Mat.  12:46-50;   Mark3:3i-35;   Luke  8:  19-21.) 

THE  first  three  evangelists  tell  of  the  mother  and 
brethren  of  our  Lord  seeking  to  see  him,  and  that 
they  could  not  come  to  him  on  account  of  the 
crowd.  Their  accounts  of  what  occurred  do  not  differ 
essentially,  but  each  one  differs  from  the  other  two  by 
giving  the  event  a  different  place  in  the  narrative.  In 
view  of  the  uncertainty  as  to  time  and  place,  we  study  it 
in  immediate  connection  with  our  Lord's  first  teaching  by 
parables  at  Capernaum. 

When  the  mother  and  brethren  of  Jesus  sought  to 
speak  to  him  they  could  not  because  of  the  multitude  and 
a  message  was  sent  to  him  through  the  crowd.  When  it 
reached  the  inner  circle  some  one  interrupted  the  dis- 
course, saying  to  Jesus,  "Thy  mother  and  thy  brethren 
stand  without  seeking  to  speak  to  thee."  When  Jesus 
heard  this  message,  instead  of  sending  back  some  reply, 
or  asking  the  crowd  to  give  way,  he  said  to  the  multitude, 
"Who  is  my  mother  and  my  brethren?"  and,  as  he  looked 
around  on  those  who  sat  near  him,  he  added,  "Behold 
my  mother  and  my  brethren !  For  whosoever  shall  do 
the  will  of  God,  the  same  is  my  brother  and  sister  and 
mother." 

182 


THE  MOTHER  AND  BRETHREN  OF  JESUS  183 

These  words  must  have  surprised  the  multitude  who 
first  heard  them,  and  they  surprise  the  average  reader 
when  he  reads  them  for  the  first  time.  When  one  thinks 
of  Jesus'  tender  regard  for  his  mother,  and  remembers 
that  he  remained  at  Nazareth  subject  to  his  parents  until 
he  was  thirty  years  old,  these  words,  spoken  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, are  a  surprise.  Why  did  he  treat  his  mother 
and  his  brethren  in  this  way? 

If  Mark  refers  to  the  same  event  when  he  says,  in  a 
different  connection,  that  the  friends  of  Jesus  thought  he 
was  mad  and  sought  to  lay  hands  on  him,  we  can  easily 
understand  his  words  and  acts  toward  them.  If  the 
Pharisees  had  succeeded  in  so  misleading  the  minds  of 
his  mother  and  his  brethren  that  they  had  come  to  try 
to  force  him  to  give  up  his  work,  the  answer  of  Jesus 
needs  no  explanation.  There  is  doubt,  however,  as  to 
whether  Mark,  in  this  part  of  his  narrative  refers  to  the 
same  event,  and  such  an  explanation  is  not  needed.  In 
the  temple,  when  Jesus  was  only  twelve  years  old,  he 
said  to  his  mother,  "How  is  it  ye  sought  me?  Wist  ye 
not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business  ?"  On  an- 
other occasion  he  said  to  her  again,  "Woman,  what  have 
I  to  do  with  thee?  Mine  hour  is  not  yet  come."  When 
she  comes  now,  he  is  doing  the  work  that  his  heavenly 
Father  has  sent  him  into  this  world  to  do,  and  he  must 
not  let  even  his  mother  and  his  brethren  interfere  with 
that  work.  In  his  answer,  he  recognizes  ties  of  relation- 
ship that  were  more  important  than  those  of  nature, 
since  whosoever  would  do  the  will  of  the  Father  was  his 
mother,  sister  and  brother — his  nearest  and  dearest  kin- 
dred. He  placed  the  conditions  of  discipleship  on  a  high 
plane,  when  he  said,  "he  that  loveth  father,  mother,  son 
or  daughter  more  than  me,  is  not  worthy  of  me,"  and  he 
recognized  the  same  principle  here  by  his  own  conduct 


i84  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

toward  his  mother.  He  was  a  most  loving  son,  and  re- 
membered his  mother  when  he  was  suffering  the  awful 
agony  of  crucifixion,  but  even  a  mother  must  not  come 
between  him  and  his  service  of  the  heavenly  Father.  No 
accident  of  birth,  nor  ties  of  human  friendship,  no  merely 
human  sentiment  must  be  allowed  to  interfere  with  his 
duty  toward  God  the  Father. 

Believers  in  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God  will  always  re- 
gard the  mother  of  our  Lord  as  the  most  highly  honoured 
of  all  women,  and  yet  she  was  only  human — not  divine. 
Her  divine  Son  must  do  the  will  of  his  heavenly  Father 
rather  than  her  will.  In  view  of  the  false  teachings  and 
sentimentality  that  have  prevailed  in  the  Christian  church, 
this  event  is  profundly  significant.  It  puts  the  stamp  of 
Scriptural  condemnation  on  superstitions  that  have  led 
to  the  idolatrous  worship  of  the  virgin  Mary.  Whoso- 
ever is  born  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  does  the  will  of 
the  Father  as  a  true  disciple,  is  more  vitally  united  to 
the  Christ  than  any  one  can  be  by  any  ties  of  kinship 
that  are  merely  natural.  Duty  to  home  and  country 
must  not  interfere  with  duty  to  God,  and  love  for  home 
and  country  is  only  pure  and  ennobling  when  it  springs 
out  of  and  is  sanctified  by  the  love  of  God.  The  follow- 
ers of  Christ  have  some  times  been  compelled  to  leave 
father  and  mother  in  order  to  serve  God,  and,  when  they 
did  so,  they  were  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
Master.  He  was  born  of  a  woman,  but  he  was  the  Son 
of  God,  and  his  great  work  of  saving  a  lost  world  always 
had  the  first  place. 


XXX 

CHRIST  STILLING  THE  STORM  ON  GALILEE 

and 
HEALING  A  DEMONIAC 

Mark  4 :  29.  "And  he  awoke,  and  rebuked  the  wind,  and  said 
unto  the  sea,  Peace,  be  still.  And  the  wind  ceased  and  there  was 
a  great  calm." 

Mat.  8 :  34.  "And  when  they  saw  him,  they  besought  him  that 
he  would  depart  from  their  borders." 

(Mat.  8:  18,  23-24;   Mark  4:  35;   5:20;   Luke  8:  32-39.) 

ON  the  evening  of  a  busy  day  in  Capernaum,  Jesus 
said  to  his  disciples,  "Let  us  go  over  unto  the 
other  side."  Without  making  any  special  prepa- 
rations the  disciples  obeyed,  and,  v^ith  the  Master  in  a 
boat,  they  launched  out  across  the  sea.  They  v^ere  ac- 
companied by  a  part  of  the  multitude  in  other  boats,  who 
probably,  vv^hen  they  saw  indications  of  a  coming  storm, 
turned  back.  The  distance  was  only  six  or  eight  miles, 
but  Jesus  was  tired,  and  had  fallen  asleep  on  a  cushion 
in  the  stern  of  the  boat  when  suddenly  a  great  storm 
arose  and  the  waves  swept  over  the  vessel.  The  dis- 
ciples were  fishermen,  and  had  been  out  in  many  a  storm 
on  this  lake,  but  this  one  so  terrified  them  that  they 
awoke  their  Master,  saying,  "Save  Lord;  we  perish." 
All  were  terror  stricken,  and  each  one  uttered  his  own 
cry  of  alarm  or  despair.    To  their  yaried  exclamations 

185 


i86  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Jesus  replied,  "Why  are  ye  so  fearful,  O  ye  of  little 
faith?"  He  did  not  reprove  them  for  lack  of  courage  or 
skill,  for  they  had  probably  done  all  that  human  skill 
could  do,  but  he  did  rebuke  them  for  lack  of  faith.  Then 
he  arose  and  spoke  to  the  winds  and  the  sea,  saying 
"Peace,  be  still."  At  his  word  the  winds  ceased  and 
there  was  a  great  calm. 

These  disciples  had  seen  their  Master  healing  diseases, 
and  they  may  have  hoped  that  he  could  save  them  from 
destruction  by  winds  and  waves,  but  they  were  awe  strick- 
en when  they  saw  the  sudden  calm,  and  said,  "What  man- 
ner of  man  is  this,  that  even  the  winds  and  the  sea  obey 
him?"  Was  it  any  wonder?  Only  a  moment  ago,  weary, 
unconscious  of  the  winds  and  the  waves,  he  lay  asleep  in 
the  boat,  but  now  he  has  risen,  and,  in  his  majesty  as 
Lord  of  wind  and  wave,  he  speaks  the  word  and  his 
servants  obey  him. 

We  do  not  depend  on  this  great  miracle  as  our  evi- 
dence of  Christ's  divinity,  for  we  do  not  see  with  our  own 
eyes  and  hear  with  our  own  ears  what  the  disciples  saw 
and  heard,  and  reports  of  this  event  are  so  brief  that  the 
skeptic  might  suggest  explanations  that  do  not  involve 
the  supernatural.  Nevertheless,  this  experience  was 
adapted  to  confirm  the  faith  of  the  disciples  and  increase 
their  respect  and  reverence  for  their  Master.  Any  one 
who  accepts  the  whole  scheme  of  redemption,  as  it  is 
revealed  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  will  find  no  difficulty 
in  accepting  the  simple  story  of  this  event  as  it  is  re- 
corded by  the  evangelists.  It  is  just  what  might  be  ex- 
pected of  the  incarnate  Son  of  God.  It  is  altogether  con- 
sistent with  what  the  Bible  teaches  as  to  his  perfect  hu- 
manity and  his  perfect  divinity.  He  could  sleep  un- 
conscious of  the  raging  winds  and  waves  that  seemed  to 
threaten  instant  destruction;    and  he  could  awake  and 


CHRIST  STILLING  THE  STORM  187 

say  to  wind  and  wave,  "Peace,  be  still."  In  him  was  the 
same  power  that  had  parted  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea 
to  save  Israel;  in  him  was  the  same  power  that  parted 
the  waters  of  the  Jordan  when  the  feet  of  the  priests, 
bearing  the  ark,  touched  the  water ;  in  him  was  the  same 
power  that  stilled  the  stormy  Mediterranean  when  the 
disobedient  Jonah  was  cast  out  of  the  ship ;  in  him  was 
the  divine  power  of  God  that  controls  through  natural 
law  or  independently  of  natural  law  all  the  forces  of 
nature  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  own  will. 

To  us  the  miracle  is  a  parable  hardly  less  luminous  and 
instructive  than  the  parables  spoken  at  Capernaum. 
When  storms  and  tempests  are  abroad  on  the  sea  of  our 
lives  there  is  One  to  whom  we  can  turn,  and  when  he 
speaks  there  will  be  peace  and  safety.  If  Christ  be  with 
us  and  for  us,  no  power  can  hurt  us. 

"No  storm  can  wreck  the  ship  where  lies 
The  Master  of  ocean,  earth  and  skies." 

The  words  of  the  Master,  "Where  is  your  faith?"  were 
not  only  for  the  little  company  of  frightened  disciples  in 
that  boat  on  Galilee,  but  for  every  anxious,  terrified 
Christian  in  every  age.  The  echo  of  these  words  has  been 
heard  for  nineteen  centuries  and  will  be  heard  until  all 
God's  people  realize  his  protecting  power  so  that  they 
can  sing,  amid  clouds,  darkness  and  tempests, 

"God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 

His  wonders  to  perform ; 
He  plants  his  footsteps  in  the  sea, 
And  rides  upon  the  storm." 

After  stilling  the  storm  Jesus  and  his  disciples  came  to 
the  eastern  shore  of  the  lake,  landing,  probably  at  a  place 


i88  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  is  now  called  Kersa.  Matthew  speaks  of  it  as  "the 
country  of  the  Gadarenes,"  while  Mark  and  Luke  call 
it  "the  country  of  the  Gerasenes.  They  did  not 
land  at  either  Gadara  or  Gerasa,  for  these  cities  are 
several  miles  from  the  lake.  The  geographical  bound- 
aries were  not  very  definite  and  the  same  region  of 
country  might  very  easily  be  designated  as  the  land  of 
the  Gadarenes  or  the  land  of  the  Gerasenes;  but  there 
is  hardly  room  for  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  exact 
place  of  landing,  since  there  is  only  one  place  on  the 
eastern  shore  that  answers  to  the  description  of  what 
took  place  after  the  landing,  and  that  one  place  is  Kersa. 

The  distance  from  Capernaum  to  Kersa  or  Gersa  was 
not  more  than  six  or  eight  miles,  and,  after  making  rea- 
sonable allowance  for  delay  on  account  of  the  storm,  the 
passage  would  only  require  three  or  four  hours,' so  that 
Jesus  and  his  disciples  probably  landed  on  the  eastern 
shore  before  midnight.  It  is  possible,  of  course,  that 
they  may  have  spent  the  whole  night  in  the  boat.  All  the 
evangelists  tell  what  took  place  after  the  landing,  but 
Mark  speaks  of  it  as  occurring  as  soon  as  they  had 
landed,  for  he  says,  "When  he  was  come  out  of  the 
boat  straightway  there  met  him  out  of  the  tombs  a  man 
with  an  unclean  spirit." 

On  the  other  side  of  the  sea  Jesus  had  been  teaching 
the  multitudes  by  parables ;  on  the  sea,  the  disciples  had 
witnessed  a  miracle  that  was  an  acted  parable,  suggest- 
ing the  Master's  power  to  still  the  storms  of  life  and  give 
peace  and  safety  to  storm-tossed  souls ;  and,  now,  on  the 
eastern  shore,  they  find  a  most  miserable  specimen  of 
human  unrest,  a  demonized  man.  This  miserable  de- 
moniac had  his  dwelling  in  the  tombs  or  caves,  and  was 
a  terror  to  the  neighborhood.  He  had  such  muscular 
strength  that  he  could  not  be  bound  with  fetters  and 


CHRIST  STILLING  THE  STORM  189 

chains ;  but  was  in  the  mountains  day  and  night,  moan- 
ing and  cutting  himself  with  stones.  Language  would 
fail  to  describe  a  more  wretched  specimen  of  humanity 
than  the  man  who,  seeing  Jesus  at  this  time,  cried  with  a 
loud  voice,  "What  have  I  to  do  with  thee,  Jesus,  thou 
Son  of  the  Most  High  God?" 

Matthew  tells  us  of  two  demoniacs,  while  Mark  and 
Luke  only  speak  of  one.  The  probable  explanation  is 
that  one  may  have  been  so  much  more  terrible  than  the 
other  as  to  be  singled  out  by  Mark  and  Luke  while  his 
companion  is  mentioned  also  by  Matthew  who  was  an 
eye  witness  of  the  event. 

Ordinary  insanity  appeals  to  our  compassion  more 
strongly  than  mere  physical  suffering,  but  this  was  worse 
than  ordinary  insanity.  A  hostile  power  possessed  this 
man's  soul,  dominated  his  will,  drove  him  into  the  tombs 
and  the  mountains,  while,  at  times,  his  real  or  better 
nature  seemed  to  struggle  for  supremacy  and  he  gave 
vent  to  doleful  cries  of  anguish  that  brought  horror  and 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  all  who  heard  them. 

When  he  saw  Jesus  there  seemed  to  be  a  fierce  con- 
flict of  two  powers,  the  man  and  the  demon.  The  maniac 
prostrated  himself  at  Jesus'  feet,  but,  when  Jesus  com- 
manded the  evil  spirit  to  come  out  of  the  man,  the  de- 
mons cried,  "What  have  we  to  do  with  thee,  thou  Son  of 
God?  Art  thou  come  hither  to  destroy  us  before  the 
time?"  Then,  when  Jesus  said,  "What  is  thy  name?"  the 
reply  was,  "My  name  is  Legion,  for  we  are  many." 

This  strange  record  suggests  many  questions  that  can- 
not be  answered.  What  is  meant  by  the  demoniac's 
answer  that  six  thousand  demons  possessed  him?  Was 
this  the  answer  of  the  demonized  man  or  of  the  demons? 
It  need  only  be  said  that  there  are  more  things  in  heaven 
and  earth  than  can  be  explained  or  understood  by  men, 


igo  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  it  is  just  as  irrational  to  attempt  to  explain  this 
event  as  it  would  be  to  deny  it  merely  because  we  cannot 
explain  it.  We  may  believe,  however,  that  this  answer 
was  the  answer  of  the  demons  rather  than  the  answer  of 
the  man,  for  they  besought  Jesus  to  not  send  them  out 
of  the  country  but  to  send  them  into  a  herd  of  some  two 
thousand  swine  that  were  feeding  on  the  mountain  side. 
This  request  was  granted,  and,  when  the  demons  left  the 
man  and  entered  the  swine,  the  whole  herd  rushed  madly 
down  the  declivity  and,  plunging  into  the  sea,  were 
drowned. 

The  questions  that  have  been  asked  as  to  why  Jesus 
permitted  these  demons  to  enter  the  swine  and  cause  their 
destruction  are  no  harder  to  answer  than  questions  as  to 
why  God  permits  any  plague  to  destroy  cattle.  When 
such  questions  arise,  we  can  only  say  that  the  secret 
things  belong  to  God  and  all  the  mysteries  of  sin  and 
suffering  he  has  not  yet  revealed.  We  shall  find,  how- 
ever, in  the  outcome  of  this  event  what  would  seem  an 
adequate  reason  for  permitting  the  destruction  of  this 
herd  of  swine  without  connecting  it  with  the  Mosaic  law 
against  using  the  flesh  of  swine  for  food. 

When  the  swineherds  saw  what  had  been  done,  they 
fled  and  told  it  in  the  city  and  in  all  the  adjoining  coun- 
try, and  very  soon  the  whole  city  came  out  to  see  Jesus. 
Luke  says  there  were  "holden  with  a  great  fear."  This 
fear  was  not  the  fear  of  reverential  awe  and  of  gratitude 
to  one  who  had  delivered  a  demonized  brother,  whom 
they  found  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,  for  they  be- 
sought Jesus  to  depart  out  of  their  borders.  They  set  a 
higher  value  on  their  swine  than  on  their  brother  man. 
Their  fear  may  not  have  been  altogether  selfish  and 
mercenary,  but  if  there  had  been  only  the  healing  of  the 
demoniac  it  is  not  probable  that  they  would  have  asked 


CHRIST  STILLING  THE  STORM  191 

Jesus  to  depart  from  their  borders.  Were  they  then 
selfish  above  all  others?  Were  they  worse  than  the  men 
now  living  in  Christian  lands  who  would  demonize  and 
destroy  their  fellow  men  in  order  to  increase  their  own 
wealth?  No.  Every  man,  who  engages  in  any  business 
that  can  only  prosper  by  the  degradation  and  destruction 
of  his  fellow  men,  is  at  heart  a  Gadarene.  Every  man 
who  seeks  to  secure  wealth  by  any  business  or  by  any 
business  methods  that  destroy  manhood  would  exclude 
Christ,  for  he  came  that  men  might  have  more  abundant 
life. 

But  there  is  a  brighter  side  to  this  dark  and  distressing 
picture.  When  Jesus  was  about  to  depart,  the  man  who 
had  been  rescued  from  the  power  of  the  demon  besought 
him  to  let  him  go  with  him.  He  at  least  appreciated  his 
deliverance  and  would  show  his  gratitude.  But  Jesus 
said,  "Go  to  thy  home,  unto  thy  friends,  and  tell  them 
how  great  things  the  Lord  hath  done  for  thee."  The  man 
obeyed  and  began  to  publish  it  throughout  Decapolis. 
This  is  the  one  bright  spot  in  this  wild,  weird,  distress- 
ing picture.  The  coming  of  Jesus  was  not  in  vain;  he 
had  healed  a  demoniac,  and  the  Gadarenes  or  Gerasenes 
were  not  left  without  an  evangelist.  It  may  be,  too,  that 
the  loss  of  the  herd  of  swine  would  constrain  some  of 
them  to  hear  the  gospel,  who  could  not  have  been  inter- 
ested in  any  other  way. 


XXXI 

THE  SENDING  FORTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES 

Mat.  10:  I.  "And  he  called  unto  him  his  twelve  disciples  and 
gave  them  authority  over  unclean  spirits,  to  cast  them  out,  and 
to  heal  all  manner  of  diseases  and  all  manner  of  sickness." 

(Mat.  9:35;   10:42;   Mark  6:7-11;   Luke  9:  1-5.) 

AFTER  telling  of  the  healing  of  the  demoniac  on 
the  eastern  shore  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  request  of 
the  Gadarenes  that  Jesus  would  depart  from 
their  borders,  Matthew  goes  on  to  say,  "He  entered  into 
a  boat  and  crossed  over  and  came  into  his  own  city." 
Then,  in  immediate  connection,  he  tells  of  the  healing  of 
the  paralytic,  of  the  calling  of  Matthew  and  of  Matthew's 
feast,  of  the  coming  of  John's  disciples  and  of  the  healing 
of  the  daughter  of  Jairus.  Mark  and  Luke  connect  this 
healing  of  Jairus'  daughter  directly  with  our  Lord's  re- 
turn from  Jerusalem.  In  view  of  this  difference  of 
chronological  order  on  the  part  of  the  evangelists,  and 
for  reasons  given  elsewhere,  we  have  placed  all  these 
events  prior  to  the  healing  of  the  Gadarene  demoniac, 
and  we  now  enter  on  the  study  of  our  Lord's  third 
circuit  of  Galilee,  when  he  "went  about  all  the  cities  and 
villages  teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and  preaching  the 
gospel  of  the  kingdom,  and  healing  all  manners  of  dis- 
eases and  all  manner  of  sickness." 

Before  Jesus  had  crossed  the  lake  to  Gadara  the  crowds 
that  came  to  his  preaching  were  so  great  and  so  dense 
that  his  mother  and  brethren  could  not  get  near  enough 

192 


SENDING  FORTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES     193 

to  speak  to  him,  and,  when  he  returned,  great  multitudes 
met  him.  Reports  of  his  calming  the  storm  and  healing 
the  Gadarene  demoniac  extended  and  intensified  the 
public  interest,  so  that  visitors  came  from' all  parts  of 
Palestine.  Some  of  these  visitors  were  attracted  by 
morbid  curiosity,  some  by  the  hope  that  their  diseases 
might  be  healed,  some  by  selfish  ambition,  some  by  envy 
and  hatred,  and  some  by  a  sense  of  spiritual  need  and 
religious  reverence.  As  Jesus  looked  on  this  great, 
heterogeneous  multitude  he  was  "moved  with  compassion 
because  they  were  distressed  and  scattered  as  sheep  not 
having  a  shepherd."  At  Sychar  he  had  called  the  atten- 
tion of  the  disciples  to  the  great  spiritual  harvest  that  was 
ripe  and  ready  to  be  gathered;  now  he  says,  "The  har- 
vest truly  is  plenteous,  but  the  labourers  are  few;  pray 
ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  that  he  send  forth 
labourers  into  his  harvest." 

After  this  he  called  the  twelve  disciples  to  him  and 
sent  them  out  into  this  harvest  field,  giving  them  au- 
thority over  unclean  spirits  to  cast  them  out,  and  to  heal 
all  manner  of  diseases  and  all  manner  of  sickness. 

This  marked  a  new  epoch  in  the  progress  of  Christ's 
kingdom.  When  he  was  baptized  and  began  his  work, 
he  called  five  disciples.  When  he  met  organized  oppo- 
sition he  called  twelve  disciples,  and  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  revealed  the  principls,  laws  and  spirit  of  his 
kingdom.  When  pride,  envy,  jealousy  and  prejudice  had 
so  blinded  the  eyes  and  hardened  the  hearts  of  the  Jewish 
leaders  that  they  would  not  receive  direct  teaching,  he 
began  teaching  by  parables  the  deeper  things  of  the 
kingdom.  Up  to  the  present,  however,  he  has  done  all 
the  preaching,  teaching  and  healing,  and  his  disciples 
merely  went  with  him ;  now  the  multitudes  have  so  in- 
creased, that  he  cannot  reach  them  all  in  person  and  he 


194  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

meets  the  new  conditions  by  sending  out  the  twelve  as  his 
representatives. 

Whether  the  entire  discourse  recorded  in  the  tenth 
chapter  of  Matthew  was  spoken  at  the  time  of  sending 
out  of  the  twelve  may  be  questioned.  Matthew's  usual 
method  of  grouping  subjects  might  lead  to  the  conclusion 
that  he  had  gathered  into  one  discourse  many  things  that 
had  been  said  at  different  times.  It  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  Jesus,  knowing  he  was  about  to  send  out  these 
disciples  to  speak  and  act  as  his  representatives,  would 
talk  of  their  work  whenever  he  had  an  opportunity.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  first  verse  of  the  eleventh  chapter  of 
Matthew  seems  to  affirm  that  all  of  these  things  were 
said  to  the  disciples  at  the  time  when  they  were  formally 
commissioned  to  go  forth,  and  we  are  inclined  to  believe 
that  this  discourse,  like  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  was 
spoken  at  one  time,  as  Matthew  records  it. 

In  the  first  part  of  the  address,  verses  five  to  ^fteen, 
Jesus  gave  direct  and  special  instructions  to  the  disciples 
as  they  went  on  this  particular  mission  to  the  lost  sheep 
of  the  house  of  Israel.  He  said,  "Go  not  into  any  way  of 
the  Gentiles,  and  enter  not  into  any  city  of  the  Samari- 
tans: but  go  rather  to  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of 
Israel.  And  as  ye  go,  preach,  saying,  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the  sick,  raise  the  dead,  cleanse 
the  lepers,  cast  out  devils:  freely  ye  received,  freely 
give.  Get  you  no  gold,  nor  silver,  nor  brass  in  your 
purses;  no  wallet  for  your  journey,  neither  two  coats, 
nor  shoes,  nor  staff:  for  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his 
food.  And  into  whatsoever  city  or  village  ye  shall  enter, 
search  out  who  in  it  is  worthy;  and  there  abide  till  ye 
go  forth.  And  as  ye  enter  into  the  house,  salute  it.  And 
if  the  house  be  worthy,  let  your  peace  come  upon  it :  but 
if  it  be  not  worthy,  let  your  peace  return  to  you.    And 


SENDING  FORTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES     195 

whosoever  shall  not  receive  you,  nor  hear  your  words, 
as  ye  go  forth  out  of  that  house  or  that  city,  shake  off 
the  dust  of  your  feet.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  It  shall  be 
more  tolerable  for  the  land  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  in 
the  day  of  judgment,  than  for  that  city." 

Some  of  these  special  intsructions  and  limitations  were 
only  for  that  particular  mission,  for  the  limitations  were 
removed  and  different  instructions  were  given  afterwards 
when  he  sent  out  the  seventy.  The  general  principles, 
however,  on  which  these  instructions  were  based  are  for 
all  who,  in  any  way,  in  any  age  or  place,  go  forth  as  the 
representatives  of  Jesus  Christ. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  discourse,  verses  16  to  23, 
Jesus  gave  directions  that  the  apostles  would  need  when 
they  preached  to  the  Gentiles  immediately  after  his  de- 
parture out  of  the  world.  He  said,  "Behold,  I  send  you 
forth  as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves :  be  ye  therefore 
wise  as  serpents,  and  harmless  as  doves.  But  beware  of 
men:  for  they  will  deliver  you  up  to  councils,  and  in 
their  synagogues  they  will  scourge  you ;  yea  and  before 
governors  and  kings  shall  ye  be  brought  for  my  sake, 
for  a  testimony  to  them  and  to  the  gentiles.  But  when 
they  deliver  you  up,  be  not  anxious  how  or  what  ye 
shall  speak :  for  it  shall  be  given  you  in  that  hour  what 
ye  shall  speak.  For  it  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit 
of  your  Father  that  speaketh  in  you.  And  brother  shall 
deliver  up  brother  to  death,  and  the  father  his  child :  and 
children  shall  rise  up  against  parents,  and  cause  them  to 
be  put  to  death.  And  ye  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for  my 
name's  sake :  but  he  that  endureth  to  the  end,  the  same 
shall  be  saved.  But  when  they  persecute  you  in  this 
city,  flee  into  the  next:  for  verily  I  say  unto  you,  Ye 
shall  not  have  gone  through  the  cities  of  Israel,  till  the 
Son  of  man  be  come." 


196  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

While  this  part  of  the  discourse  contains  principles 
and  directions  that  are  for  the  representatives  of  Christ 
in  all  the  ages,  there  has  been  no  age  in  the  history  of  the 
church  when  there  was  so  perfect  a  realization  of  the  pic- 
ture presented  by  our  Lord  as  in  the  apostolic  age.  The 
little  company  of  Christians  after  the  death  of  Christ 
seemed  like  sheep  amongst  wolves.  They  were  harmless 
as  doves,  and  yet  they  exercised  remarkable  wisdom; 
they  could  put  no  trust  in  men,  and  they  were  brought  be- 
fore ecclesiastical  councils  and  civil  rulers ;  they  were 
beaten  and  scourged,  and  when  they  were  persecuted  in 
one  city  they  fled  to  another. 

When  Jesus  said  in  this  part  of  his  discourse  "Ye 
shall  not  have  gone  through  the  cities  of  Israel  till  the 
Son  of  Man  shall  come,"  it  seems  probable  that  he  re- 
ferred to  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  at  the  time  of 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem. 

The  last  part  of  the  discourse,  verses  24  to  42,  had  a 
still  wider  range,  and  more  direct  application  to  a  later 
age.  It  declared  that  the  disciple  was  not  above  his 
Lord,  and  that  he  should  expect  from  the  world  the  same 
treatment  that  his  Lord  received.  It  revealed  the  only 
true  source  of  Christian  courage  in  any  age,  as  it  said, 
"Fear  them  not  therefore ;  for  there  is  nothing  covered 
that  shall  not  be  revealed,  and  hid  that  shall  not  be  made 

known Be  not  afraid  of  them  which  kill  the  body, 

but  are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul ;  but  rather  fear  him  who 
is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell." 

Disciples  of  Christ  and  all  true  servants  of  God  are  to 
expect  trials,  and  must  face  dangers  while  they  are  in 
the  world.  They  are  not  to  expect  fair  treatment,  but 
they  are  to  feel  that  the  time  will  come  when  all  secrets 
shall  be  revealed  and  their  righteousness  shall  be  recog- 
nized. They  are  to  fear  God  and  seek  his  approval ;  and 
he  who  fears  God  need  fear  no  creature. 


SENDING  FORTH  OF  THE  APOSTLES     197 

In  this  part  of  the  discourse,  as  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  Christ  assured  his  disciples  that  the  very  hairs 
of  their  heads  were  numbered,  and  that  the  slightest  sacri- 
fice for  God  would  be  recognized.  He  also  demanded  open 
confession,  giving  a  promise  to  those  who  confessed  him, 
coupled  with  a  warning  to  those  who  for  any  reason  re- 
fused to  confess  him.  He  added  the  remarkable  state- 
ment that  he  did  not  come  to  send  peace  on  the  earth,  but 
that  he  did  come  to  unsheathe  the  sword  of  a  conflict  so 
fierce  that  it  would  array  against  each  other  those  who  are 
bound  together  in  the  closest  ties  of  kinship. 

The  same  general  principles  run  through  the  entire  dis- 
course, and  it  can  never  grow  old  so  long  as  Christ's 
servants  seek  the  upbuilding  of  his  kingdom  in  the  world. 
The  faithful  servant  can  appropriate  these  words  of  the 
Master,  whether  he  serve  him  in  the  most  favorable 
fields  in  Christian  lands,  or  in  'the  darkest  regions  of 
heathenism.  Everywhere  there  is  need  of  the  spirit  of 
self  sacrificing  devotion ;  everywhere  there  is  need  of 
the  courage  that  comes  from  trusting  in  God,  and  every- 
where God  will  reward  those  who  receive  his  servants 
kindly,  even  remembering  the  cup  of  cold  water  that  is 
given  in  the  name  of  a  disciple.  The  one  great  essential 
fact  to  be  recognized  by  Christians,  as  they  work  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  kingdom  in  all  the  ages,  is  the  fact  that 
they  are  the  servants  of  God  to  save  men,  and  that  they 
have  a  message  from  God  for  unsaved  men.  Mission- 
aries, ministers  of  the  gospel.  Christian  men  and  women 
of  all  classes,  as  they  work  for  Christ,  can  appropriate 
these  instructions  of  Christ,  making  only  such  changes  as 
the  diflferent  conditions  and  circumstances  require.  No 
messenger  of  Christ  will  fail  in  his  mission  so  long  as  he 
follows  these  instructions  and  no  one  can  be  really  suc- 
cessful who  neglects  them. 


XXXII 

THE  MURDER  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  AND 
FEEDING  THE  FIVE  THOUSAND 

Mark  6 :  34.  "And  when  he  came  out  he  saw  a  great  multitude, 
and  he  had  compassion  on  them,  because  they  were  as  sheep  not 
having  a  shepherd." 

(Mat.  14:    1-21 ;    Mark  6:  14-44;    Luke  9:7-17;   John  6:1-15.) 

THE  murder  of  John  the  Baptist  probably  occurred 
while  the  twelve  disciples  were  on  their  mission 
to  "the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel."  Mark 
tells  of  the  disciples  going  forth,  preaching,  healing  dis- 
eases and  casting  out  demons  and,  in  immediate  connec- 
tion, says  that  King  Herod  heard  thereof  and  said,  "John 
the  Baptist  is  risen  from  the  dead."  Luke  tells  of  the 
mission  of  the  twelve,  and  adds  that  Herod  was  much 
perplexed  on  account  of  the  rumor  that  John  had  risen 
from  the  dead.  It  is  not  surprising  that  Herod  should 
be  perplexed  since  his  hands  were  red  with  the  blood  of 
such  a  man  as  John  the  Baptist.  He  probably  did  not 
believe  in  any  real  resurrection  of  the  dead,  but  he  shud- 
dered as  he  looked  out  into  the  invisible  world  and  felt 
that  he  had  not  closed  his  account  with  the  murdered 
prophet  of  God.  He  had  perverted  justice,  betrayed  his 
trust,  and  murdered  the  innocent;  and,  when  he  heard 
of  the  mighty  works  of  Jesus  and  his  disciples,  he  as- 
sociated them  in  some  way  with  the  great  preacher  of 
repentance  whom  he  had  murdered. 

198 


THE  MURDER  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST     199 

The  murder  of  John  the  Baptist,  the  EHjah  of  the  New 
Testament,  was  one  of  the  most  atrocious  crimes  that 
blacken  the  pages  of  human  history.  Herod  Antipas  and 
Herodias,  his  wife,  bore  a  striking  resemblance  to  Ahab 
and  Jezebel,  the  deadly  enemies  of  the  Elijah  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Ahab  was  a  weak,  selfish,  unmanly  tool  of 
an  ambitious,  unscrupulous  and  desperately  wicked  wom- 
an. Jezebel  was  capable  of  committing  any  crime 
and  Ahab  permitted  her  to  exercise  his  royal  authority 
for  the  murder  of  his  subjects.  Herod  Antipas  who,  on 
the  death  of  Herod  the  Great,  became  Tetrach  of  Galilee, 
was  a  weak,  vacillating,  superstitious  voluptuary.  He 
married  the  daughter  of  Aretas  king  of  Arabia  Petrea, 
but,  after  he  had  been  married  many  years,  on  one  of 
his  numerous  visits  to  Rome,  he  came  under  the  influence 
of  Herodias,  the  wife  of  his  brother  Herod  Philip. 
Herodias  was  a  strong  minded,  ambitious,  conscienceless 
woman.  She  had  married  her  cousin  Herod  Philip,  and 
they  had  one  daughter,  but  Herod  Philip  was  not  in  a 
position  to  gratify  her  ambitions  and  she,  having  per- 
suaded Antipas  to  divorce  his  lawful  wife,  deserted  her 
husband  and  married  Antipas. 

When  or  how  Herod  Antipas  first  came  into  contact 
with  John  the  Baptist  we  do  not  know,  but,  when  he 
heard  him  preach,  he  was  interested,  heard  him  gladly 
and  was  brought  under  his  influence.  The  Baptist,  true 
to  his  mission  as  a  preacher  of  repentance,  rebuked 
Herod,  saying,  "It  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  have  thy 
brother's  wife."  This  enraged  Herodias  and  she  con- 
strained Herod  to  arrest  John,  and  would  have  con- 
strained him  to  murder  him  forthwith,  but  for  the  fact 
that  Antipas  had  some  scruples  of  conscience,  and  for 
another  more  important  fact  that  he  feared  the  people 
who  regarded  John  as  a  prophet.    The  imprisonment  of 


200  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  fearless  preacher  did  not  satisfy  the  malicious  and 
conscienceless  Herodias,  Even  as  a  prisoner  she  both 
hated  and  feared  him,  and,  with  all  the  cunning  of  deadly 
malice,  she  deliberately  schemed  to  have  the  faithful 
prophet  murdered.  According  to  the  custom  of  the 
Herods,  Antipas,  on  his  birthday,  made  a  supper  to  his 
lords,  and  the  high  captains,  and  the  chief  men  of  Galilee. 
On  this  occasion  Herodias  arranged  an  elaborate  feast  in 
the  palace  probably  at  Machaeris,  where  John  was  in 
prison.  As  the  feast  progressed,  and  the  host  and  his 
guests  were  inflamed  with  wine,  shameless  dancing  girls 
were  brought  in  to  entertain  fhe  revellers.  Herodias  had, 
however,  prepared  a  special  surprise  for  this  occasion, 
and  she  sent  her  own  daughter,  Salome,  as  a  dancing  girl 
to  dance-  before  Herod  and  his  guests.  Herod  was  de- 
lighted, and  said  to  her,  "Ask  of  me  whatsoever  thou 
wilt,  and  I  will  give  it  thee.  And  he  sware  unto  her, 
whatsoever  thou  shalt  ask  of  me,  I  will  give  it  thee,  unto 
the  half  of  my  kingdom." 

Immediately  Salome  went  to  her  mother  and  said, 
"What  shall  I  ask."  This  was  the  moment  for  which 
Herodias  had  waited  and  planned,  and  she  answered 
without  hesitation^  "The  head  of  John  the  Baptist."  Not 
a  moment  was  to  be  lost.  Herod  might  change  his  mind. 
Salome  ran  with  haste  saying,  "I  will  that  thou  forth- 
with give  me  in  a  charger  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist." 
This  outrageous  request  sobered  and  distressed  Herod, 
and  he  was  exceeding  sorry,  but  "for  the  sake  of  his 
oaths,  and  of  them  that  sat  at  meat,  he  would  not  reject 
her.  And  straightway  the  king  sent  forth  a  soldier  of  his 
guard  and  commanded  him  to  bring  his  head :  and  he 
went  and  beheaded  him  in  prison,  and  brought  his  head 
in  a  charger  and  gave  it  to  the  damsel  and  the  damsel 


THE  MURDER  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST    2or 

gave  it  to  her  mother."  There  is  hardly  in  all  history  a 
more  horrible  story  of  lust,  hatred  and  murder. 

The  disciples  of  John  came  to  the  prison  and  took  the 
body  of  their  revered  and  beloved  master  and  laid  it  in  a 
tomb.  These  disciples  had,  at  one  time,  been  jealous  of 
Jesus  for  their  master's  sake,  but,  now,  when  he 
has  been  foully  murdered,  in  their  deep  sorrow,  they 
come  and  tell  Jesus.  The  record  of  this  event  is  very 
brief,  but  intensely  pathetic.  One  would  like  to  know 
all  the  details  as  John's  disciples  told  Jesus  of  the  terrible 
tragedy ;  one  would  like  to  know  what  Jesus  said  in  re- 
turn to  comfort  them.  We  do  know  that  only  infinite 
patience  could  have  restrained  infinite  power  from  exe- 
cuting swift  and  terrible  justice  on  the  guilty  Herod  and 
his  infamous  partner  in  wickedness. 

What  Jesus  thought  of  Herod  is  indicated  by  his 
actions  on  the  two  occasions  when  he  afterwards  came  in 
contact  with  him.  On  one  of  these  occasions,  the  Phari- 
sees said  to  Jesus,  "Get  thee  out  and  go  from  hence  for 
Herod  would  fain  kill  thee."  Jesus  replied,  "Go  and  say 
to  that  fox,  behold  I  cast  out  demons  to-day  and  to-mor- 
row and  the  third  day  I  am  perfected."  On  the  other  oc- 
casion, when  Pilate  sent  Jensus  to  Herod  Antipas  for 
judgment,  Jesus  refused  to  recognize  him  in  any  way.  On 
both  these  occasions  the  compassionate  Saviour  of  men 
seemed  to  treat  Herod  with  supreme  contempt. 

When  Jesus  saw  John's  disciples,  he  looked  beyond  the 
bloody  tragedy  that  had  been  enacted  in  Herod's  palace, 
and  he  committed  John's  case  to  him  who  judgeth 
righteously,  knowing  that, 

"Though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly 

Yet  they  grind  exceeding  small ; 
Though  with  patience  he  stands  waiting, 
With  exactness  grinds  he  all." 


202  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Herod  and  his  guilty  paramour  lived  long  enough  to 
reap  some  of  the  bitter  fruits  of  their  crime.  Aretas,  to 
avenge  the  insult  to  his  daughter,  made  war  on  him. 
Afterwards,  when  influenced  by  the  ambition  of  He- 
rodias,  he  sought  a  kingly  title,  he  was  banished  from 
Rome  and  died  in  poverty  and  obscurity. 

When  Herod  the  Great  murdered  the  little  children  at 
Bethlehem  he  placed  his  name  on  the  scroll  of  infamy 
amongst  the  monsters  of  cruelty.  He  could,  however, 
plead  the  law  of  self-preservation.  Herod  Antipas  could 
not  even  do  this,  and  his  name  goes  down  in  history  as  a 
weak,  cunning,  conscienceless  voluptuary. 

About  this  time  the  twelve  disciples  of  Jesus  returned 
to  him  at  or  near  Capernaum  and  told  their  experiences. 
They  had  heard  of  the  murder  of  John,  and  would  tell 
their  Master  all  the  details  as  they  heard  them.  The 
multitude  that  had  gathered  about  Jesus  was  so  great 
that  he  and  his  disciples  did  not  have  time  to  eat.  The 
friends  of  John  the  Baptist  were  there,  pilgrims  on  their 
way  to  the  passover  feast  at  Jerusalem  where  there,  and 
no  doubt  many  came  with  the  twelve  on  their  return  to 
their  Master.  Jesus  was  tired  and  depressed.  The  tragic 
death  of  his  faithful  forerunner  could  not  fail  to  bring 
before  his  prophetic  eyes  the  time  when  his  own  suffer- 
ings and  death  must  be  met.  It  is  not  strange  therefore 
that  he  should  say  to  his  disciples,  "Come  ye  yourselves 
apart  into  the  desert  and  rest  awhile." 

They  were  at  Capernaum  and  the  place  selected  for  this 
rest  was  on  the  north  eastern  shore  of  the  Lake  Gennes- 
aret,  south  of  Bethsaida  Julias,  about  six  miles  from 
Capernaum.  Jesus,  with  his  disciples,  went  out  across  the 
lake  in  a  boat.  The  people  from  all  the  cities  in  that 
region,  seeing  them  depart,  and,  marking  their  course, 
guessed  their  destination,  and  went  by  land  around  the 


THE  MURDER  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST    203 

northern  end  of  the  lake,  reaching  the  uninhabited  plain 
before  the  boat  touched  the  shore.  When  our  Lord  saw 
the  great  multitude,  and  realized  that  his  plans  fO|r  rest 
were  frustrated,  instead  of  being  indignant,  was  moved 
with  compassion  and,  instead  of  rebuking  the  multitude, 
"he  began  to  teach  them  many  things."  Luke  says,  "He 
welcomed  them,  and  spoke  to  them  of  the  kingdom,  and 
them  that  had  need  of  healing  he  healed."  Jesus  saw  in 
this  multitude  a  miniature  lost  world  and,  at  such  a  sight, 
his  own  sorrows,  weariness,  hunger  and  thirst  seemed 
to  vanish. 

When  the  day  was  drawing  to  a  close  the  disciples  sug- 
gested to  him  to  send  the  multitudes  into  the  country  and 
villages  to  buy  food  for  themselves  ;  but  Jesus  said,  "Give 
ye  them  to  eat."  The  disciples  replied,  "Shall  we  go  and 
buy  two  hundred  penny  worth  of  bread  and  give  them  to 
eat?"  Jesus  said,  "How  many  loaves  have  ye?"  Andrew 
answered,  "There  is  a  lad  here  that  hath  five  barley 
loaves  and  two  fishes ;  but  what  are  they  among  so 
many?"  Jesus  did  not  answer  his  question  in  words,  but 
he  directed  the  disciples  to  "make  the  people  sit  down"; 
and,  when  all  were  seated  on  the  green  grass  in  an  orderly 
fashion,  he  took  the  loaves  and  the  fishes,  and,  "looking 
upward  to  heaven,  he  blessed  and  brake  the  loaves,  and 
he  gave  to  the  disciples"  to  distribute  to  the  people ;  and 
the  two  fishes  he  divided  amongst  them  all.  When  they 
all  ate  and  were  filled  there  remained  of  the  feast  suf- 
ficient fragments  to  fill  twelve  baskets. 

The  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  men  with  a  few  loaves 
was  a  miracle  that  seemed  to  convince  the  Jews  that 
Jesus  was  indeed  the  promised  Messiah.  The  miracle 
at  Cana  in  Galilee  had  been  witnessed  by  a  comparatively 
small  company,  but  this  miracle  was  witnessed  by  thou- 
sands, and  amongst  these  thousands  were  many  Jews  who 


204  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

were  looking  for  a  leader  like  unto  Moses,  who  would  de- 
liver their  nation  as  Moses  had  delivered  them  from 
Egyptian  bondage.  Restlessness  under  the  Roman  rule 
was  no  doubt  aggravated  at  this  particular  time  by  the 
act  of  Herod  in  murdering  one  whom  many  of  the  people 
recognized  as  a  prophet.  When  these  men  saw  Jesus 
miraculously  feeding  the  great  multitude  their  thoughts 
went  backward  to  the  time  when  Moses  had  fed  their 
nation  with  bread  from  heaven  and  they  believed  that 
Christ  had  manifested  the  same  divine  power.  He  was, 
therefore,  the  ruler  they  had  been  looking  for  and  they 
were  ready  to  follow  him  in  an  effort  to  throw  off  the 
hated  Roman  yoke.  They  believed  that  if  he  had  no  arms 
and  no  supplies  that  he  could,  by  supernatural  power, 
provide  them.  They  were,  therefore,  ready  to  proclaim 
him  King  of  the  Jews,  and  his  disciples  were  carried  away 
by  their  enthusiasm  so  that  it  would  only  have  required 
a  little  time  to  organize  a  rebellion.  Jesus,  therefore, 
constrained  his  disciples  to  get  into  a  boat  and  to  go  to 
Capernaum  while  he  dismissed  the  multitude. 

While  this  miracle  was,  for  those  who  witnessed  it,  a 
convincing  evidence  of  the  messiahship  of  Jesus,  it  is  for 
all  Christians  a  revelation  of  the  character  and  methods 
of  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  weary  and  sad  and  needed  rest, 
but  when  he  saw  the  multitude  he  had  compassion  on 
them. 

As  has  been  said  elsewhere,  the  word  compassion  de- 
scribes more  aptly  than  any  other  word  the  attitude  of 
God  in  Christ  toward  sinning,  suffering  men.  It  was  used 
to  describe  Christ's  emotion  as  he  looked  on  lepers  and  on 
the  widow  of  Nain,  and  it  is  now  used  to  describe  his 
emotions  as  he  looks  on  the  multitude  in  the  wilderness. 
In  divine  compassion  the  plan  for  man's  redemption  orig- 
inated; with  divine  compassion  Christ  came  to  seek  and 


THE  MURDER  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST    205 

save  lost  men.  Compassion  is  the  great  motive  power 
for  Christian  activity  in  every  age.  A  cold  compassion- 
less  man  is  essentially  un-Christian,  and  a  compassionless 
church  cannot  be  a  Christian  church.  To  those  who  are 
hungry,  fainting  and  perishing  for  the  bread  of  life  the 
Christian  church  is  never  to  say,  Go  elsewhere  and  buy 
bread.  Christ's  command  to  the  disciples  is  for  every 
messenger  of  Christ  who  finds  any  class  or  race  of  sin- 
ners that  he  would  send  away  unsupplied.  The  gospel 
feast  affords  abundant  provision  for  all  men  of  every 
race  and  nation  and  is  adapted  to  the  needs  of  all  men. 
Christian  compassion  will  reach  "the  masses"  and  will 
abundantly  supply  every  hungry  soul.  Lack  of  com- 
passion and  not  lack  of  food  is  sending  many  hungry 
souls  away  from  the  church  to  buy  food;  and,  as  the 
Master  looks  out  on  the  millions  who  are  now  perishing 
without  the  gospel,  he  is  saying  to  his  church  "Give  ye 
them  to  eat."  There  is  enough  for  all  men ;  it  is  adapted 
to  the  wants  of  all ;  it  is  to  be  freely  offered  to  all.  Christ 
will  take  care  of  the  supply,  if  the  Christian  church  will 
distribute  the  food. 


XXXIII 

JESUS  WALKS  ON  THE  SEA 

Mat.  14 :  27.    "Be  of  good  cheer ;   it  is  I ;   be  not  afraid," 
(Mat.  14:  2^-33;    Mark  6:45-56;    John  6:16-21.) 

AFTER  feeding  the  multitude  and  sending  the  dis- 
ciples across  the  lake,  Jesus  dismissed  the  people 
and  withdrew  to  the  mountain  alone.  It  was  a 
crisis  in  his  redemptive  work.  The  enthusiastic  multi- 
tude were  offering  him  what  the  tempter  had  offered  him 
at  the  beginning  of  his  public  ministry.  They  recognized 
him  as  the  prophet  like  unto  Moses,  the  promised  son  of 
David  who  should  wield  a  scepter  of  universal  dominion, 
and  they  were  ready  to  rebel  against  Caesar,  and  crown 
him  as  their  king.  They  had  seen  him  feed  five  thousand 
men  with  a  few  loaves  and  they  believed  that  a  leader 
clothed  with  such  power  would  enable  them  to  throw  off 
the  hated  Roman  yoke  and  make  themselves  an  independ- 
ent people.  The  twelve  disciples  were  probably  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  multitude  and  were  beginning  to  hope  that 
their  Master  would  proclaim  himself  the  King  of  the 
Jews  and  set  up  his  kingdom. 

To  Jesus  it  all  seemed  discouraging  and  distressing. 
He  saw  in  it  all  an  utter  misapprehension  of  the  char- 
acter of  his  kingdom,  and,  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the 
selfish,  material  delusion,  he  constrained  the  disciples  to 
go  away  in  a  boat,  and  then  withdrew  from  the  multitude 
that  he  might  be  alone  with  God. 

206 


JESUS  WALKS  ON  THE  SEA  207 

While  Jesus  was  in  his  mountain  sanctuary,  the  dis- 
ciples, battling  with  winds  and  waves,  had  only  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  middle  of  the  lake  and  were  in  distress. 
Only  a  few  nights  before  this  they  had  been  caught  in  a 
terrific  storm  on  that  lake,  but  their  Master  had  been  with 
them,  whereas  now  they  were  alone.  As  they  contended 
with  winds  and  waves  their  distress  gave  place  to  super- 
stitious horror  when  they  saw,  toward  morning,  some 
one  walking  on  the  waters  that  were  threatening  to 
swamp  their  boat.  While  they  looked  at  what  they  be- 
lieved to  be  an  apparition,  they  cried  out  in  superstitious 
fear,  but  their  fear  changed  to  reverential  awe  when  the 
voice  of  their  Lord  came  to  them  over  the  waves,  saying, 
"Be  of  good  cheer ;  it  is  I ;  be  not  afraid."  The  impul- 
sive Peter  exclaimed,  "If  it  be  thou,  bid  me  come  unto 
thee  upon  the  water."  Jesus  said  "Come."  Instantly 
Peter  left  the  boat  and  walked  on  the  water,  but  when  he 
saw  the  waves  he  was  afraid,  and,  beginning  to  sink, 
cried,  "Lord,  save  me."  Jesus  stretched  forth  his  hand 
and,  taking  hold  of  the  sinking  disciple,  said,  "O  thou  of 
little  faith,  wherefore  didst  thou  doubt?"  When  the  two 
came  into  the  boat  the  wind  ceased  and  they  that  were 
in  the  boat  worshipped  him,  saying,  "Of  a  truth  thou  art 
the  Son  of  God." 

This  unique  sketch  reveals  and  illuminates  Christ's 
character  as  a  present  help  in  time  of  trouble.  He  saw 
his  disciples  struggling  on  the  stormy  sea  through  the 
midnight  hours  and  he  came  to  them  across  the  storm 
tossed  lake.  He  is  the  same  yesterday,  today  and  for- 
ever. Clothed  with  all  authority,  in  heaven  and  upon 
earth,  he  can  fulfill  his  promises  and  be  with  each  dis- 
ciple when  the  storms  and  waves  on  the  sea  of  life  seem 
about  to  destroy  him.  He  is  a  "very  present  help  in  time 
of  trouble,"    As  he  saw  his  disciples  in  their  distress  and 


2o8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

danger  and  came  over  the  waves  of  Galilee,  so  too,  he 
now  comes  to  his  disciples  who  need  his  help.  When 
clouds  gather,  when  the  winds  are  contrary,  when  heart 
and  flesh  fail,  and  the  disciples  are  in  distress,  they  may 
hear  his  voice  saying,  "Be  of  good  cheer ;  it  is  I ;  be  not 
afraid."  No  night  is  so  dark  that  he  cannot  see  his  suf- 
fering disciples ;  no  winds  are  so  wild  and  no  waves  so 
high  that  he  cannot  come  to  them.  On  the  shore,  the 
preceding  day,  Christ  had  refused  the  offer  to  lead  the 
multitude  in  the  contest  for  kingly  crown ;  but  when 
night  came  on,  and  they  were  struggling  for  life,  he  pre- 
sented himself,  not  only  as  king  of  men,  but  as  Lord  of 
wind  and  wave.  He  does  not  minister  to  selfish  ambi- 
tion but  he  will  be  with  his  disciples  in  their  times  of 
trouble,  he  will  deliver  them  from  their  distresses  and 
will  bring  them  into  the  haven  of  rest. 

The  action  of  Peter  was  characteristic  of  the  man. 
He  could  not  control  himself  as  did  the  other  disciples, 
or  as  the  average  man  would  have  done.  He  was  a 
unique  character,  and,  yet  he  was  the  center  of  special 
interest  because  he  was  so  thoroughly  human.  Weak- 
ness and  strength,  vanity  and  humility,  fickleness  and 
faithfulness,  childishness  and  manliness  in  the  superla- 
tive degree  combined  to  make  him  what  he  was.  It  was 
characteristic  of  this  impetuous  disciple  to  wish  to  go  to 
Christ  on  the  stormy  sea ;  it  was  no  less  characteristic  of 
his  humility  that  he  would  not  go  without  his  Master's 
permission,  and  the  same  traits  appeared,  when,  looking 
at  the  winds,  beginning  to  sink,  he  cried  "Lord,  save  me." 

Jesus  did  not  call  attention  to  Peter's  presumption  or 
vanity.  He  saw  in  him  more  than  mere  presumption  or 
vanity,  and  he  saw  in  this  act  some  elements  of  trustful, 
enthusiastic  faith.  He  did  not  rebuke  Peter  for  his  en- 
thusiasm, but  he  did  say,  "O  thou  of  little  faith,  where- 


JESUS  WALKS  ON  THE  SEA  209 

fore  didst  thou  doubt?"  Jesus  is  less  offended  by  rash- 
ness and  imprudence  of  his  disciples  than  he  is  by  their 
lack  of  faith,  especially  when  this  lack  of  faith  takes  the 
form  of  selfish  prudence  or  hopeless  despair.  John  was 
the  disciple  that  Jesus  loved,  but  to  the  reckless  pre- 
sumptuous Peter,  with  a  little  faith,  he  gave  the  first 
place  amongst  the  twelve. 

This  incident  furnishes  a  good  illustration  of  how  faith 
in  God  differs  from  faith  in  self,  and  how  faith  in  God 
is  always  linked  with  humility,  while  faith  in  self  begets 
presumption.  With  faith  in  self  Peter  seeks  to  appear 
courageous  and  asks  to  walk  over  the  waves;  with  dis- 
trust of  self,  when  he  sees  the  winds  and  waves  and  begins 
to  sink,  he  cries,  "Lord  save  me." 


XXXIV 
JESUS'  POPULARITY  BEGINS  TO  DECLINE 

John  6:66.     "Upon  this  many  of  his  disciples  went  back,  and 
walked  no  more  with  him." 

(Mat.  14:34;    15:20;   Mark  6 :  53-7 :  23 ;   John  6:  22-71.) 

THE  interchange  of  names  by  the  different  evan- 
geHsts,  as  they  give  accounts  of  crossing  the  sea 
after  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand,  creates 
doubt  as  to  the  geographical  location.  Matthew  says, 
"Jesus  constrained  his  disciples  to  get  into  a  boat  and  go 
before  him  unto  the  other  side,"  and  then  adds,  "when 
they  had  crossed  over,  they  came  to  the  land,  unto  Gennes- 
aret."  Mark,  describing  the  same  event,  says  "he  con- 
strained his  disciples  to  enter  into  the  boat,  and  to  go 
before  him  unto  the  other  side  to  Bethsaida,  and  he  adds, 
"when  they  had  crossed  over,  they  came  to  the  land  unto 
Gennesaret."  John  says,  the  disciples  "entered  into  a 
boat,  and  were  going  over  the  sea  unto  Capernaum,"  and 
he  adds,  "the  boat  was  at  the  land  whither  they  were  go- 
ing." 

These  different  statements  may  be  harmonized.  The 
Bethsaida  or  Fisherton  here  spoken  of,  was  a  suburb  or 
part  of  Capernaum.  This  is  evident  from  other  inter- 
changing of  the  names.  (Compare  John  1:44;  12-21 
with  Mark  i :  29.)  The  disciples  launched  out  from  the 
eastern  shore,  intending  to  land  at  Bethsaida,  the  fishing 
quarter  at  Capernaum,  but  were  driven  by  the  storm,  so 

210 


JESUS'  POPULARITY  BEGINS  TO  DECLINE  211 

that  they  actually  did  land  and  moor  their  boat  at  Gennes- 
aret,  whence  they  journeyed  to  Capernaum, 

Matthew  and  Mark  connect  our  Lord's  return  to 
Capernaum  with  the  controversy  with  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  about  hand  washing,  vows  and  other  questions, 
whereas  John  connects  it  with  the  profound  discussion 
concerning  the  true  bread  from  heaven.  The  probable 
order  of  events  is  suggested  by  John,  when  he  says  that 
the  discussion  concerning  the  true  bread  from  heaven 
took  place  in  the  synagogue.  This  indicates  that  it  took 
place  on  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  The  multitude  that  had 
been  fed  in  the  wilderness  did  not  discover  that  Jesus 
had  crossed  the  lake  until  the  following  day,  and  when 
they  made  the  discovery  they  came  by  boats  to  Caperna- 
um seeking  him.  This  would  consume  the  greater  part 
of  the  day,  so  that  the  conversation  introduced  by  their 
coming  and  questions  probably  did  not  take  place  until 
the  following  day. 

Assuming  that  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  took 
place  on  Thursday,  Jesus,  with  his  disciples,  landed  at 
Gennesaret  on  Friday  morning  and  came  to  Capernaum 
where  he  met  and  rebuked  the  Pharisees.  The  next  day 
was  the  Jewish  Sabbath  and  Jesus  spent  part  of  the  day 
in  the  synagogue,  speaking  of  the  true  bread  from  heaven. 
Edersheim,  after  assuming  this  order,  calls  attention  to 
a  peculiar  correspondence  of  dates  when  comparing  this 
event  with  the  last  events  of  our  Lord's  mortal  life.  He 
sees  in  Peter's  request  to  come  to  our  Lord  on  the  water, 
and  his  subsequent  sinking  in  the  waves,  a  foreshadow- 
ing of  that  disciple's  boastfulness  and  grievous  fall  at  the 
time  of  Christ's  arrest. 

John  says  that  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  took 
place  about  the  time  of  the  passover.  This  passover  was 
probably  at  the  end  of  the  second  year  of  Christ's  public 


212  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ministry,  and  he  did  not  attend  it.  The  proximity  of  this 
feast  added  to  the  multitude  that  came  from  Jerusalem 
and  elsewhere  to  visit  our  Lord  at  Capernaum  and  were 
present  when  he  landed  with  his  disciples  at  Gennesaret. 
In  the  promiscuous  crowd  were  Pharisees  and  scribes, 
and  they  asked  Jesus  why  his  disciples  transgressed  the 
tradition  of  the  elders  by  eating  without  having  washed 
their  hands.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees  may  have 
marked  this  lack  of  ceremony  when  the  disciples  fed  the 
five  thousand  on  the  eastern  shore;  or  they  may  have 
seen  them  as  they  stopped  to  take  food  on  their  way  from 
Gennesaret  to  Capernaum.  The  disciples  were  weary 
and  hungry,  and  they  would  not  be  as  careful  in  observ- 
ing religious  forms  as  they  ordinarily  were. 

Whatever  the  circumstances,  our  Lord  does  not  ofifer 
any  excuse  or  apology,  but  he  does  defend  the  acts  of  his 
disciples.  There  was  nothing  in  the  ceremonial  law  of 
the  Old  Testament  that  required  this  washing  of  hands. 
The  Pharisees  had  exalted  the  traditions  of  the  elders 
above  the  law  of  God.  Christ  rebuked  their  zeal  for 
traditions  by  saying,  "Why  do  ye  also  transgress  the  com- 
mandment of  God?"  As  an  example  of  their  transgres- 
sion he  showed  how  the  command  to  honour  father  and 
mother  had  been  made  void  by  their  traditions  that  per- 
mitted religious  cant  to  take  the  place  of  filial  affection 
and  reverence  for  parents.  Then,  probably  for  the  first 
time,  he  openly  and  strongly  denounced  their  religious 
pretensions,  saying,  "Ye  hypocrites,  well  did  Isaiah 
prophecy  of  you,  saying, 

"This  people  honoreth  me  with  their  lips; 
But  their  heart  is  far  from  me. 
But  in  vain  do  they  worship  me, 
Teaching  as  their  doctrine  the  precepts  of  men." 


JESUS'  POPULARITY  BEGINS  TO  DECLINE  213 

Then,  addressing  the  multitude,  and  afterwards  his 
immediate  disciples,  he  showed  the  difference  between 
true  religion  and  mere  ceremonial,  declaring  that  men 
were  defiled  by  evil  thoughts  and  not  by  physical  food 
nor  by  the  manner  of  taking  it. 

This  discourse  marked  another  crisis  in  our  Lord's 
history.  He  had  reached  the  climax  of  popularity,  and, 
from  the  standpoint  of  human  wisdom,  he  should  have 
been  careful  to  not  make  enemies.  But  it  was  his  mis- 
sion to  glorify  the  Father,  and  he  could  not  glorify  God 
by  encouraging  the  belief  that  God  cared  more  for  the 
washing  of  hands  and  professions  of  piety  than  he  did 
for  a  pure  heart  and  faithful  performance  of  duty.  At 
any  cost  he  must  teach  men  that  no  outward  forms  can 
please  God  so  long  as  the  heart  is  sending  forth  covetings, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  falsehoods,  rail- 
ings and  other  evil  thoughts.  He  could  not,  even  by 
silence,  give  his  consent  when  men  were  teaching  that 
godliness  was  only  an  outward  form  and  not  a  living 
power;  he  could  not  be  silent  when  men  were  teaching 
that  God  was  willing  to  accept  pious  vows  as  a  substitute 
for  obedience  to  his  revealed  will. 

If  the  whole  of  Friday  was  taken  up  with  the  journey 
to  Capernaum,  healing  the  sick  and  this  discussion  con- 
cerning purifying  and  traditions,  the  discussion  recorded 
in  the  sixth  chapter  of  John  occurred  on  the  next  Jewish 
Sabbath. 

The  conversation  was  introduced  by  a  question  of 
some  of  those  who  had  come  from  the  other  side  of  the 
sea,  saying,  "Rabbi,  when  comest  thou  hither?"  They 
probably  had  heard  of  his  walking  on  the  sea,  and  they 
may  have  hoped  that  he  would  speak  of  the  marvelous 
event;  or  they  may  have  only  indicated  their  curiosity 
and  their  surprise  by  their  question.     Jesus  did  not  an- 


214  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

swer  their  question,  but  he  did  say  in  reply,  "Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  ye  seek  me,  not  because  ye  saw 
signs,  but  because  ye  ate  of  the  loaves  and  were  filled. 
Work  not  for  the  meat  which  perisheth,  but  for  the  meat 
which  abideth  unto  eternal  life  which  the  Son  of  man 
shall  give  unto  you ;  for  him  the  Father,  even  God  hath 
sealed."  Replying  to  this  reproof,  which  they  seemed 
to  accept  with  humility,  they  said,  "What  must  we  do, 
that  we  may  work  the  works  of  God?"  Jesus  answered, 
"This  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom 
he  hath  sent." 

Instead  of  accepting  this  answer  to  their  question  they 
reminded  Jesus  that  Moses  had  given  their  fathers  manna 
in  the  wilderness,  and  they  said,  "What  doest  thou  for  a 
sign  that  we  may  see  and  believe  thee?"  Jesus  replied, 
"Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you  it  was  not  Moses  that  gave 
you  the  bread  out  of  heaven ;  but  my  father  giveth  you 
the  true  bread  of  heaven  for  the  word  of  God  is  he  that 
cometh  down  out  of  heaven  and  giveth  life  unto  the 
world."  They  said  therefore  unto  him,  "Lord,  ever- 
more, give  us  this  bread." 

These  people  had  been  ready  to  proclaim  Jesus  their 
king  because  they  had  eaten  of  the  loaves,  but  they  wished 
him  to  continue  the  supply  as  Moses  had  done.  They 
did  not  recognize  the  miracle  he  had  performed  as  a 
sufficient  confirmation  of  his  claim  to  be  the  representa- 
tive of  God,  but  rather  as  a  foundation  of  hope  that  he 
would  continue  to  minister  to  their  material  and  physical 
needs. 

This  conversation  served  as  an  introduction  to  a  most 
profound  discourse,  as  Jesus  said,  "I  am  the  bread  of 
life ;  he  that  cometh  to  me  shall  not  hunger,  and  he  that 
believeth  on  me  shall  never  thirst.  But  I  said  unto  you, 
that  ye  have  seen  me,  and  ye  believe  not.    All  that  which 


JESUS'  POPULARITY  BEGINS  TO  DECLINE  215 

the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  unto  me ;  and  him  that 
cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.  For  I  am  come 
down  from  heaven,  not  to  do  mine  own  will,  but  the  will 
of  him  that  sent  me.  And  this  is  the  will  of  him  that  sent 
me,  that  of  all  that  which  he  hath  given  me  I  should  lose 
nothing,  but  should  raise  it  up  at  the  last  day." 

At  this  point  the  discourse  was  interrupted  by  the  mur- 
muring of  the  Jews,  as  they  said,  "Is  not  this  Jesus,  the 
Son  of  Joseph,  whose  father  and  mother  we  know? 
How  doth  he  now  say,  I  am  come  down  out  of  heaven?" 
Jesus  answered,  "Murmur  not  among  yourselves.  No 
man  can  come  to  me,  except  the  Father  who  sent  me 
draw  him ;  and  I  will  raise  him  up  in  the  last  day.  It  is 
written  in  the  prophets,  and  they  shall  all  be  taught  of 
God.  Every  one  that  hath  heard  from  the  Father,  and 
hath  learned,  cometh  unto  me.  Not  that  any  man  hath 
seen  the  Father,  save  he  which  is  from  God,  he  hath  seen 
the  Father.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  he  that  be- 
lieveth  hath  eternal  life.  I  am  the  bread  of  life.  Your 
fathers  did  eat  the  manna  in  the  wilderness,  and  they 
died.  This  is  the  bread  which  cometh  down  out  of 
heaven,  that  a  man  may  eat  thereof,  and  not  die.  I  am 
the  living  bread  which  came  down  out  of  heaven :  if  any 
man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  for  ever;  yea  and  the 
bread  which  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  for  the  life  of  the 
world." 

At  this  point  another  interruption  occurred  as  the  Jews 
strove  one  with  another  and  said,  "How  can  this  man 
give  us  his  flesh  to  eat?"  Jesus  replied,  "Verily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  except  ye  eat  the  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man 
and  drink  his  blood,  ye  have  not  life  in  yourselves. 
He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  hath 
eternal  life ;  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day.  For 
my  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  my  blood  is  drink  indeed. 


2i6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and  drinketh  my  blood  abideth 
in  me,  and  I  in  him.  As  the  living  Father  sent  me,  and  I 
live  because  of  the  Father;  so  he  that  eateth  me,  he  also 
shall  live  because  of  me.  This  is  the  bread  which  came 
down  out  of  heaven :  not  as  the  fathers  did  eat,  and 
died ;  he  that  eateth  this  bread,  shall  live  for  ever." 

By  this  time  many  of  the  disciples  were  displeased  and 
so  manifested  their  disapproval  that  Jesus  said,  "Doth 
this  cause  you  to  stumble?  What  then  if  ye  should  be- 
hold the  Son  of  man  ascending  where  he  was  before? 
It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth ;  the  flesh  profiteth  noth- 
ing; the  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto  you  are  spirit, 
and  are  life." 

The  dissatisfaction  now  became  so  general  and  so 
manifest  that  Jesus  said  unto  the  twelve,  "Will  ye  also 
go  away?"  Simon  Peter  answered,  saying,  "Lord,  to 
whom  shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life ; 
and  we  have  believed  and  know  that  thou  art  the  Holy 
One  of  God."  Jesus  replied,  "Did  I  not  choose  you  the 
twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil?  Now  he  spake  of 
Judas,  the  son  of  Simon  Iscariot,  for  he  it  was  that  should 
betray  him." 

It  may  seem  surprising  that  our  Lord  should  enter 
into  such  a  profound  discourse  when  he  saw  the  lack  of 
spiritual  perception,  but  his  teaching  here  was  not  unlike 
his  method  of  teaching  at  the  well  in  Samaria.  There 
he  started  with  a  very  simple  request  for  water  to  quench 
his  thirst,  and  he  ended  with  profound  spiritual  truths. 
Here  he  began  with  feeding  a  hungry  multitude,  and  he 
led  them  up  to  the  great  mystery  of  godliness  in  which 
the  true  disciple  eats  the  flesh,  drinks  the  blood  of  the  Son 
of  man  and  enters  into  such  vital  union  with  him  as  to 
have  a  share  in  all  the  benefits  of  his  redemptive  work.  He 
warned  his  diciples  against  thinking  that  he  was  speaking 


JESUS'  POPULARITY  BEGINS  TO  DECLINE  217 

of  material  eating  and  drinking  of  his  flesh  and  blood,  say- 
ing, "it  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth,  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing."  He  lifted  the  thoughts  of  all  who  would  follow 
him  out  of  the  realms  of  the  seen,  the  sensual  and  the 
perishable  into  the  realms  of  the  unseen,  the  spiritual  and 
the  eternal.  He  could  feed  the  hungry  multitudes  with 
food  for  their  bodies;  he  could  walk  upon  the  sea  and 
could  control  the  winds  and  the  waves;  but  these  were 
only  incidental  matters.  His  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world,  not  a  material  kingdom ;  he  came  to  give  men  the 
bread  of  eternal  life;  he  came  to  calm  their  spiritual 
storms  and  give  them  the  very  peace  of  God;  he  came 
that  they  might  eat  his  flesh  and  drink  his  blood  in  such 
a  way  as  to  enter  into  real  and  vital  union  with  him  and 
become  partakers  of  his  life,  so  as  to  become  the  Sons  of 
God.  He  taught  his  disciples  that  the  instrument  or 
channel  of  power  for  doing  all  this  was  faith  when  he 
said,  "this  is  the  work  of  God,  that  ye  believe  on  him 
whom  God  hath  sent."  Unbelieving  Jews  will  continue 
to  say  "How  can  this  man  give  us  his  flesh  to  eat?"  but 
the  believing  heart  can  say,  "It  is  no  longer  I  that  live, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me,"  and,  "because  he  lives  I  shall 
live  also." 

The  great  majority  of  those  who  heard  this  most  pro- 
foundly spiritual  discourse  were  displeased  and  alienated 
from  Christ.  They  were  disappointed.  They  had  been 
looking  for  a  Messiah  that  would  minister  to  all  their 
selfish,  sensual  desires,  a  Messiah  that  would  minister  to 
their  national  pride  and  satisfy  their  vaulting  ambitions. 
Christ's  words  had  destroyed  their  illusions  and  there 
was,  not  only  a  decline  of  enthusiasm,  but  such  a  general 
turning  away  from  him  that  he  was  constrained  to  say  to 
the  twelve,  "Will  ye  also  go  away?"  Jesus  well  knew 
what  it  all  meant.    He  saw  even  here  the  beginning  of 


2i8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  movement  that  would  end  in  his  crucifixion.  He 
saw,  too,  that  one  of  the  twelve  was  not  really  with  him. 
It  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Selfishness  was  disap- 
pointed. Hatred  and  malice  were  coming  in  to  take  the 
place  of  thwarted  ambition.  Christ's  kingdom  was  not  of 
this  world,  and  he  saw  in  the  distance  the  betrayal  in 
Gethsemane  and  the  cross  on  Calvary. 

It  seems  impossible  for  any  one  to  read  this  profoundly 
spiritual  discourse,  and  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  said  all 
this,  without  either  rejecting  him  as  a  deceiver  or  accept- 
ing him  as  the  divine  Son  of  God — the  Unique  Revealer 
of  God.  When  these  words  were  first  spoken  they  sepa- 
rated the  multitude  into  two  classes,  one  of  whom  were 
offended  and  rejected  him,  and  the  other  said  in  substance, 
with  Peter,  "to  whom  shall  we  go?  for  thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life."  This  discourse  of  Jesus  is  making 
the  same  cleavage  to-day;  true  believers  find  in  Jesus' 
person  and  work  the  bread  of  life,  and,  in  him,  have 
eternal  life,  while  unbelievers  are  offended. 


XXXV 

JESUS  AND  THE  SYRO-PHCENICIAN  WOMAN 

Mat.  15:28.     "O  woman,  great  is  thy  faith;    be  it  unto  thee 
even  as  thou  wilt." 

(  Mat.  15 :  21-28 ;   Mark  7 :  24-30. ) 

IF,  as  we  have  assumed,  the  feeding  of  the  five  thou- 
sand took  place  on  Thursday,  the  controversy  con- 
cerning traditions  and  purifying  on  Friday,  and  the 
discussion  concerning  the  true  bread  from  heaven  on  the 
Jewish  Sabbath,  we  may  infer  that  on  the  first  day  of  the 
week  Jesus  started  in  the  direction  of  Tyre.  We  are 
not  told  why  he,  who  was  sent  only  to  the  lost  sheep  of 
the  house  of  Israel,  should  go  into  the  borders  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon.  It  seems  evident,  though,  that  he  sought 
rest  and  solitude,  for  he  entered  into  a  house  and  would 
have  no  man  know  it.  His  effort  to  find  solitude  and 
rest  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  sea  had  signally  failed, 
for  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  had  brought  a  crisis 
that  increased  both  bis  labours  and  his  dangers.  He  saw 
the  selfish,  sensual  multitude  planning  to  crown  him  as 
King  of  the  Jews  and  place  him  in  the  position  of  a 
leader  in  rebellion  against  the  Roman  government.  He 
saw  also  the  beginnings  of  disappointment  and  defection 
that  would  end  in  his  betrayal  and  crucifixion,  and  he 
withdrew  from  the  crowd  and  took  with  him  the  twelve 
disciples,  one  of  whom  he  recognized  as  his  betrayer. 

The  distance  from  Capernaum  to  Tyre  is  about  forty 
miles,  but  in  his  first  journey  Jesus  only  came  "into  the 

219 


220  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

borders  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,"  probably  not  more  than  half 
the  distance  from  Capernaum  to  Tyre.  It  was  about  the 
time  of  the  passover  and  may  have  been  the  passover 
week  that  he  spent  in  this  house  where  we  are  told  he 
sought  concealment. 

This  journey  brought  Jesus  into  contact  with  the 
world's  oldest  and  most  advanced  civilization.  The 
Phoenicians  gave  to  the  world  the  first  alphabetical  writ- 
ing ;  and  the  Old  Testament  contains  many  references  to 
the  magnificence  of  Tyre,  the  metropolis  of  Phcenicia. 
Joshua  characterizes  her  as  "the  strong  city,"  and,  in 
Solomon's  day,  she  was  preeminent  for  architectural 
beauty.  Ezekiel  taxes  the  entire  geography  of  the  known 
world  in  his  descriptions  of  her  riches  and  splendor,  as 
he  tells  of  her  fir  trees  from  Senir,  her  cedars  from  Leba- 
non, her  oaks  from  Bashan,  her  ivory  from  Chittim,  her 
fine  linen  from  Egypt,  her  iron  and  silver  from  Spain, 
her  emeralds  and  corals  from  Syria,  her  gold  and  precious 
stones  from  Sheba.     (Ezekiel  2.']:  1-36.) 

The  Phoenicians,  even  in  Christ's  day,  had  inherited 
the  fruits  of  many  centuries  of  civilization ;  but  they  still 
needed  some  one  who  was  able  to  bind  up  broken  hearts ; 
and,  when  Jesus  Christ  came  into  their  borders,  "he  could 
not  be  hid."  A  Greek  Syro-Phoenician  woman,  whose 
little  daughter  had  an  unclean  spirit,  heard  of  him,  and, 
coming  to  him,  fell  down  at  his  feet,  crying,  "Have  mercy 
on  me,  O  Lord,  thou  son  of  David;  my  daughter  is 
grievously  vexed  with  a  demon." 

Of  this  woman  we  only  know  that  she  was  a  Greek,  a 
Syro-Phoenician,  and  that  she  was  a  gentile,  and  not  one 
of  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel.  Christ  had 
healed  the  son  of  a  Roman  centurion,  and  we  should  have 
expected  him  to  hear  at  once  such  an  appeal  as  this 
mother  presented  for  her  child,  but  "he  answered  her  not 


JESUS  AND  SYRO-PHGENICIAN  WOMAN  221 

a  word."  Her  deep  distress,  her  pathetic  and  persevering 
plea  touched  and  distressed  the  disciples  and  they  came 
to  the  Master  beseeching  him  to  send  her  away  com- 
forted, but  he  replied,  "I  was  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel."  When  the  woman  re- 
newed her  petitions,  saying,  "Lord,  help  me,"  he  an- 
swered, "It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's  bread  and 
cast  it  to  the  dogs."  This  seemed  an  absolute  and  a 
harsh  refusal,  yet  the  woman  found  in  this  answer  a  plea, 
as  she  said,  "Yea  Lord,  for  even  the  dogs  eat  of  the 
crumbs  which  fall  from  their  Master's  table."  Her  plea 
prevailed,  and  Jesus  answered,  "O  woman,  great  is  thy 
faith ;  be  it  unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt ;  and  her  daugh- 
ter was  healed  from  that  hour." 

What  is  the  explanation  of  our  Lord's  treatment  of 
this  afflicted  woman?  Why  does  the  compassionate 
Saviour,  who  would  not  break  the  bruised  reed  nor 
quench  the  glimmering  wick,  speak  such  words  to  a 
wretched  heart-broken  mother  when  she  comes  to  plead 
for  her  child? 

This  at  first  seems  a  hard  question.  But  is  it,  after 
all,  essentially  different  from  the  questions,  Why  does  a 
loving,  heavenly  Father  permit  any  of  his  children  to 
suffer  ?  Why  does  God  ever  seem  to  hide  his  face  ?  Do 
we  not  find  the  answer  to  all  these  questions  in  the  assur- 
ance that  no  man  lives  for  himself?  This  woman  may 
have  needed  just  such  treatment  in  order  to  the  develop- 
ment of  her  own  faith ;  or  she  may  have  been  chosen  to 
give  to  others  a  great  lesson  of  humble,  persevering  faith 
and  its  rewards.  No  candid  reader  will  find  in  this  in- 
cident any  evidence  that  Jesus  Christ  was  careless  of  hu- 
man suffering.  He  permitted  this  woman  to  suffer,  but 
he  did  not  afflict  willingly.    He  is  the  same  loving  Sav- 


222  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

iour  now,  and,  though  he  tarry,  he  will  come  at  the  best 
time,  and  with  real  help  for  those  who  trust  him. 

Our  Lord's  commendation  of  this  woman  is  very  sig- 
nificant. An  ordinary  or  superficial  observer  might  have 
expected  him  to  say,  "O  woman,  great  is  thy  humility!" 
or,  "Great  is  thy  love !"  Her  love  for  her  child  had  con- 
strained her  to  humbly  accept  the  name  that  Jewish  pride 
had  given  to  the  heathen  world,  or  to  other  nations.  She 
had  repressed  her  national  pride  and  had  come  to  one 
who  claimed  to  be  Israel's  Messiah,  one  whom  she  ad- 
dressed as  the  son  of  David,  asking  for  help.  Her 
daughter  was  grievously  vexed  with  a  demon,  and  she  was 
willing  to  endure  anything  in  order  to  save  the  loved  one. 
She  pled  as  she  probably  would  not  have  pled  for  her 
own  life.  When  she  seemed  to  be  harshly  rebuked,  she 
persisted,  saying,  "Lord  help  me."  As  one  reads  this 
part  of  the  story  he  is  ready  to  exclaim,  "What  will  not 
a  mother's  love  do?"  But  Christ  saw  what  seemed  to 
him  more  wonderful,  more  worthy  of  note  than  even  this 
maternal  affection,  and  he  said,  "O  woman,  great  is  thy 
faith!"  Her  faith  had  lifted  her  above  all  the  petty 
pride  of  race  and  of  nationality,  and  had  enabled  her  to 
prevail  in  prayer.  In  her  faith  Christ  saw  the  victory 
that  despises  shame,  ignores  obstacles,  removes  moun- 
tains and  overcomes  the  world.  She  was  passing 
through  deep  waters,  and  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  working, 
when,  where  and  how  he  will,  she  was  able  to  believe  that 
the  Christ  of  God,  the  Messiah  of  Israel,  could  and  would 
help  her.  Maternal  affection  with  its  self-sacrificing 
abandon  is  a  beautiful  thing;  but  faith  that  trusts  God 
and  links  man  to  God  in  Christ  is  infinitely  better  and 
more  beautiful.  Maternal  affection  is  the  greatest  thing 
in  the  natural  world,  but  by  faith  we  are  lifted  into  the 
realms  of  the  spiritual  and  supernatural  and  a,rQ  made 


JESUS  AND  SYRO-PHCENICIAN  WOMAN  223 

perfect  in  love.  When  this  mother  found  her  daughter 
healed,  she  did  not  need  to  forget  the  seeming  harshness 
of  the  great  Physician.  Her  faith  saw  the  love  of  God 
in  it  all. 

"O  gift  of  gifts !    O  grace  of  faith  ! 

My  God  how  can  it  be, 
That  thou  who  hast  discerning  love, 

Shouldst  give  that  gift  to  me ! 
The  crowd  of  cares,   the   weightiest  cross, 

Seem  trifles  less  than  light 
Earth  looks  so  little  and  so  low 

When  faith  shines  full  and  bright." 


XXXVI 

FROM  PHCENICIA  THROUGH  DECAPOLIS  TO 
GALILEE 

Mat.  15:31.  "And  again  he  went  out  from  the  borders  of 
Tyre,  and  came  through  Sidon  unto  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  through 
the  midst  of  the  borders  of  Decapolis." 

(Mat.  15:31-39;    Mark  7:31-8:10.) 

JESUS  probably  remained  "in  the  borders  of  Tyre 
and  Sidon"  only  a  few  days,  for  "he  could  not  be 
hid,"  and  he  did  not  find  the  solitude  and  rest  he 
sought.  From  his  first  resting  place  he  passed  north- 
ward through  Sidon.  On  this  journey  he  could  see 
Sarepta,  and  would  think  of  Elijah's  flight  and  miracles 
to  which  he  had  referred  when  speaking  to  the  people  of 
Nazareth.  He  could  also  look  out  over  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  with  its  ships  from  Greece,  Italy,  Spain  and 
other  commercial  countries  of  the  civilized  world.  After 
leaving  Sidon  he  turned  eastward,  probably  going  up  the 
valley  of  the  Bostreus  and  passing  through  some  opening 
in  the  Lebanon  mountains  into  the  deep  valley  of  the 
Leontas.  From  this  point  he  could  go  farther  north- 
ward and  cross  over  into  the  sources  of  the  river  Jordan, 
and  then  journey  southward  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Jordan,  through  the  borders  of  Decapolis. 

The  name  Decapolis,  meaning  ten  cities,  was  applied 
to  a  region  of  allied  cities  east  of  the  Jordan,  including 
Bethshean  w€st  of  that  river. 

224 


THROUGH  DECAPOLIS  TO  GALILEE      225 

From  the  time  Jesus  and  his  disciples  left  the  borders 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon  until  they  reached  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
they  traveled  not  less  than  one  hundred  miles  through  a 
country  inhabited  by  gentiles.  Of  what  Jesus  did  and 
said  on  this  long  journey  amongst  a  semi-pagan  people 
where  he  would  see  shrines  of  heathen  divinities,  there 
are  very  meagre  records.  Matthew  seems  to  be  speak- 
ing of  what  took  place  on  this  journey  when  he  says, 
"There  came  unto  him  multitudes,  having  with  them  the 
lame,  blind,  dumb,  maimed  and  many  others,  and  they 
cast  them  down  at  his  feet,  and  he  healed  them;  inso- 
much that  the  multitude  wondered,  when  they  saw  the 
dumb  speaking,  the  maimed  whole,  the  lame  walking, 
and  the  blind  seeing;  and  they  glorified  the  God  of  Is- 
rael." Mark  gives  no  general  history  of  this  period,  but 
he  tells  in  detail  of  the  healing  of  one  man  who  was  deaf 
and  had  an  impediment  in  his  speech.  The  friends  who 
brought  this  man  to  Jesus  besought  him  "to  lay  his  hands 
upon  him."  Jesus  had  healed  others  with  a  word,  but  he 
chose  to  make  this  healing  gradual,  and  to  connect  it  with 
some  outward  forms.  He  took  the  man  aside  from  the 
multitude,  put  his  fingers  in  his  ears,  spat  and  touched 
his  tongue,  and,  looking  up  to  heaven,  sighed,  and  said 
"Ephphatha!  Be  opened."  When  the  word  had  been 
spoken  the  man's  ears  were  opened,  the  impediment  in 
his  speech  was  removed,  and  "he  spake  plain."  The 
multitude  were  astonished  beyond  measure  and  said,  "He 
hath  done  all  things  well." 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  the  inference  that  this  use 
of  outward  forms  is  peculiar  to  the  healing  of  Gentiles ; 
for  the  daughter  of  the  Syro-Phcenician  mother  was 
healed  without  being  brought  into  the  presence  of  Jesus. 
Nor  can  any  one  say,  with  any  degree  of  confidence  or 
authority,  why,  in  this  particular  case,  the  evangelist  puts 


226  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

on  record  the  fact  that  Jesus  sighed.  When  he  groaned 
in  spirit  and  wept  at  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  the  outward 
manifestations  of  deep  distress  led  the  people  to  say, 
"Behold  how  he  loved  him !"  But  we  do  not  find  in  this 
record  any  explanation  of  our  Lord's  peculiar  sadness. 
His  compassionate  heart  was  always  saddened  by  the 
sight  of  suffering,  and  this  sigh  may  have  been  only  the 
escape  of  a  little  of  that  pent  up  emotion  that  filled  the 
heart  of  "The  Man  of  Sorrows."  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
his  strict  charge  that  the  healing  should  not  be  published 
abroad  was  disobeyed. 

The  healing  of  the  deaf  man  appears  to  have  taken 
place  not  far  from  the  Sea  of  Galilee.  The  multitudes 
that  had  gathered  about  the  great  Physician  had  nothing 
to  €at.  When  Jesus  saw  their  condition  he  called  his 
disciples  and  said,  "I  have  compassion  on  the  multitude, 
because  they  continue  with  me  now  three  days  and  have 
nothing  to  eat ;  and  if  I  send  them  away  fasting  to  their 
home,  they  will  faint  in  the  way ;  and  some  of  them  have 
come  from  far." 

It  may  at  first  seem  remarkable  that  the  disciples  did 
not  at  once  suggest  that  their  Master  should  again  do  as 
he  had  done  when  he  fed  five  thousand  men  with  a  few 
loaves.  But  a  little  consideration  will  indicate  good  rea- 
sons why  they  should  not  presume  to  make  such  a  sug- 
gestion. Only  once,  in  all  his  ministry,  had  he  used  his 
supernatural  power  to  feed  a  hungry  multitude ;  and,  after 
that  event,  he  had  rebuked  the  multitude  for  following 
him  because  they  had  eaten  of  the  loaves  rather  than  be- 
cause they  had  seen  the  miracle.  Their  not  reminding 
him  of  that  miracle  indicated  profound  reverence  rather 
than  lack  of  faith.  There  was  humble  reverence  in  their 
question,  "Whence  shall  one  be  able  to  fill  these  men  with 
bread  here  in  a  desert  place?"     Their  faith  in  him  was 


THROUGH  DECAPOUS  TO  GALILEE      227 

evident,  when  they,  without  hesitation,  obeyed  his  com- 
mands and  proceeded  to  feed  four  thousand  men  together 
with  women  and  children  with  seven  loaves  and  a  few 
small  fishes. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  answer  the  question  whether  this 
might  not  be  only  another  account  of  the  former  miracle 
when  five  thousand  men  were  fed.  If  one  evangelist  had 
recorded  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand  and  a  different 
writer  had  recorded  this  miracle,  the  critics  might  have 
raised  such  a  question.  But  the  same  evangelists  record 
both.  The  two  accounts  are  different  in  every  essential 
particular,  in  time,  circumstances,  numbers,  provisions, 
fragments,  and,  especially  in  the  composition  of  the  mul- 
titude who  were  fed.  In  the  former  miracle  many  of 
the  multitude  were  Jews  who  wished  to  crown  Jesus  as 
King.  On  this  occasion  the  greater  part  of  the  multitude 
were  gentiles.  Moreover,  our  Lord  himself  reminded 
the  disciples  afterwards  of  the  two  different  events. 
(Mark  8:  19-20.) 

Edersheim  calls  attention  tO'  the  significant  fact  that 
our  Lord  closed  his  Galilean  ministry  by  feeding  the  five 
thousand,  his  ministry  in  Decapolis  by  feeding  the  four 
thousand,  and  his  ministry  in  Judea  by  instituting  the 
Lord's  Supper.  The  five  thousand  were  mostly  Jews 
from  Caj>ernaum,  or  Jews  on  the  way  to  the  passover  at 
Jerusalem;  the  four  thousand  were  gentiles,  and  only 
the  disciples  were  present  to  partake  of  the  Lord's  sup- 
per in  that  upper  room  in  Jerusalem. 


XXXVII 
THE  GREAT  CONFESSION 

Mat.  i6:  i6.  "And  Simon  Peter  answered  and  said,  "Thou  art 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 

(Mat.  i6:  1-28;   Mark  8:  11-9:  i;   Luke  9:  18-27.) 

AFTER  feeding  the  four  thousand,  Matthew, 
speaking  of  Jesus,  says,  "He  sent  the  multitudes 
away,  and  entered  into  the  boat  and  came  into 
the  borders  of  Magadan."  Mark  says :  "Straightway 
he  entered  into  the  boat  with  his  disciples,  and  came  into 
the  parts  of  Dalmanutha."  He  probably  came  across  the 
Sea  of  Galilee  to  the  west  coast,  landing  a  little  south  of 
the  plain  of  Gennesaret.  Here  he  met  the  Pharisees  and 
Sadducees,  who  began  to  question  him,  seeking  a  sign 
from  heaven,  tempting  him.  Mark  records  the  fact  that 
he  sighed  deeply  in  his  spirit  and  said,  "Why  doth  this 
generation  seek  a  sign  ?  verily  I  say  unto  you,  there  shall 
no  sign  be  given  unto  this  generation."  Matthew  says 
that  Jesus  rebuked  the  sign  seekers,  calling  attention  to 
their  readiness  to  fortell  fair  and  foul  weather,  and  their 
failure  to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times. 

It  seems  remarkable  that  the  Sadducees,  who  did  not 
believe  in  the  spiritual  world,  should  be  asking  for  a  sign. 
Nevertheless,  credulity  and  skepticism  frequently  go 
hand  in  hand,  and  these  Sadducees,  having  heard  of 
Christ's  miracles,  wished  to  see  one.  Neither  Pharisees 
nor  Sadducees  were  honest  seekers  after  truth  and  light. 
The  gentiles   in   Decapolis   had  manifested   a   friendly 

228 


THE  GREAT  CONFESSION  229 

spirit,  saying,  "he  doth  all  things  well;"  but  Jesus  per- 
ceived the  enmity  in  the  hearts  of  these  Jewish  sign- 
seekers,  and  he  said,  "An  evil  and  adulterous  generation 
seeketh  after  a  sign  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  it 
but  the  sign  of  Jonah." 

After  this  brief  but  hostile  meeting  with  the  Pharisees 
and  Sadducees,  Jesus,  with  his  disciples,  departed  in  a 
boat  to  the  coast  of  Bethsaida- Julius,  on  the  way  to 
Caesarea  Philippi.  The  heart  of  Jesus  was  very  sad  and 
the  disciples  were  discouraged  and  depressed. 

When  they  reached  the  other  side  of  the  lake  Jesus 
said  to  the  disciples,  "Take  heed,  and  beware  of  the 
leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees."  These  words 
indicate  the  trend  of  our  Lord's  thoughts  as  they  came 
across  the  sea.  He  had  seen  and  felt  the  hypocrisy  and 
deadly  enmity  that  was  growing  in  the  hearts  of  these 
rulers  of  the  Jews,  and  he  warned  his  disciples.  His 
words  were  misunderstood,  for  his  disciples  had  forgot- 
ten to  take  bread  and  they  thought  their  Master  was  re- 
ferring to  this  neglect.  It  is  possible  that  they  had  in 
their  minds  the  thought  that  their  having  no  bread  would 
compel  their  Master  to  work  another  miracle  and  thus 
give  a  sign  from  heaven,  and  they  may  have  thought  that 
he  was  warning  them  against  the  sign-seeking  spirit  of 
the  Jews.  It  is  far  more  probable,  however,  that  they 
had  been  so  concerned  about  their  neglect  to  bring  the 
needed  provisions  for  their  journey  that  they  associated 
our  Lord's  words  with  what  was  in  their  own  minds. 
They  were  nervous  and  anxious  and  were  as  much  wor- 
ried about  trifles  as  they  were  about  the  greatest  and 
most  important  matters.  Jesus,  perceiving  this  anxiety, 
said,  "Do  ye  not  perceive,  neither  remember  the  five 
loaves  of  the  five  thousand,  and  how  many  baskets  ye 
took  up  ?     Neither  the  seven  loaves  of  the  four  thousand, 


230  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  how  many  baskets  ye  took  up  ?  How  is  it  that  ye  do 
not  perceive  that  I  spake  not  to  you  concerning  bread? 
But  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  and  Sad- 
ducees." 

In  this  connection  Mark  tells  of  the  healing  of  a  blind 
man  as  Jesus  and  the  disciples  came  to  Bethsaida.  It  is 
possible  that  this  event  did  not  take  place  at  this  par- 
ticular time,  but  there  is  scarcely  room  for  reasonable 
doubt.  The  connection  in  which  the  evangelist  records 
it,  the  manner  of  healing,  with  all  the  attendant  incidents 
seem  to  prove  conclusively  that  this  miracle  was  wrought 
after  Jesus  had  left  the  boat  and  was  on  his  way  to 
Caesarea  Philippi. 

Jesus  took  the  man  by  the  hand,  brought  him  out  of 
the  multitude,  spat  on  his  eyes  and  laid  his  hands  upon 
him,  and  said  "seest  thou  aught?"  And  he  looked  up, 
and  said,  "I  see  men ;  for  I  behold  them  as  trees  walk- 
ing." Then  again  he  laid  his  hands  upon  his  eyes;  and 
he  looked  steadfastly,  and  was  restored,  and  saw  all 
things  clearly.  And  he  sent  him  away  to  his  home,  say- 
ing, "Do  not  even  enter  into  the  village." 

A  conversation  that  occurred  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Caesarea  Philippi  is  recorded  by  Matthew,  Mark  and 
Luke.  Christ's  miracles  attracted  the  attention  of  all  be- 
holders, but  this  conversation  of  Jesus  with  his  disciples 
brought  out  the  great  essential  truths  concerning  his  per- 
son and  his  redemptive  work.  In  this  conversation 
there  is  developed  a  great  confession,  a  great  commis- 
sion, a  great  revelation  and  a  great  promise, 

A  review  of  the  condition  and  circumstances  may  aid 
us  in  understanding  this  conversation.  At  the  beginning 
of  his  public  ministry  Jesus  had  gone  from  Judea  into 
Galilee;  he  had  attended  at  least  two  Jewish  feasts  at 
Jerusalem,  and  had  gone  through  Galilee  healing  the  dis- 


THE  GREAT  CONFESSION  231 

eased  and  preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God ; 
he  had  traveled  through  Phoenicia  and  Decapolis,  and  ex- 
cited such  interest  that  the  whole  land  from  center  to 
circumference  was  filled  with  rumours  concerning  his 
mighty  works  and  with  questions  as  to  his  claim  to  be  the 
promised  Messiah. 

When  the  popular  interest  in  Jesus  was  at  its  height, 
and  he  was  the  great  center  of  attraction  and  the  theme 
of  conversation,  he  crossed  the  lake,  withdrew  from  the 
multitude  and  went,  with  his  disciples,  to  Csesarea  Philip- 
pi,  some  forty  miles  north  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  to  Lake 
Merom.  On  this  journey,  looking  southward  he  could 
see  the  whole  lake  of  Gennesaret  with  the  valley  of  the 
Jordan;  before  him  were  the  hills,  on  the  west  the 
height  of  Hafed,  with  Hermon  in  the  distance,  and  tow- 
ering Lebanon  for  a  back  ground  to  the  picture.  Leav- 
ing Merom  and  the  scenes  of  Joshua's  victory  over  Jabin, 
he  passed  over  hills  and  through  rich  cultivated  plains 
until  he  reached  Csesarea. 

On  the  way,  or  at  the  end  of  this  long  journey,  sepa- 
rated from  the  crowd  and  alone  with  his  disciples,  Jesus 
asked  the  disciples  what  might  seem  a  casual  or  curious 
question,  saying,  "Who  do  men  say  that  the  Son  of  man 
is?"  He  did  not  ask  this  question  for  information,  for 
he  knew  the  great  variety  of  opinions  that  had  been  ex- 
pressed. He  had  been  recognized  as  a  divinely  commis- 
sioned teacher.  He  had  been  called  the  Son  of  David 
and  the  Son  of  God,  and  his  question  now  seemed  only 
to  be  asked  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  another. 
When  the  disciples  answered,  "Some  say  John  the  Bap- 
tist; some  Elijah,  and  others  Jeremiah,  or  one  of  the 
prophets,"  he  said,  "But  who  say  ye  that  I  am?" 

To  this  direct,  personal  question  Peter  answered, 
"Thou  art  the  Christ  the  Son  of  the  living  God," 


232  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

This  answer  of  Peter  expressed  the  beUef  of  the  other 
disciples,  but  his  prompt,  sincere  and  definite  reply  to 
Jesus  marked  him  as  the  real  leader,  and  Jesus,  recog- 
nizing the  indwelling  Spirit  that  prompted  the  answer, 
said,  "Blessed  art  thou  Simon  Bar- Jonah ;  for  flesh  and 
blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  who 
is  in  heaven.  And  I  say  unto  thee  that  thou  art  Peter, 
and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church ;  and  the  gates 
of  Hades  shall  not  prevail  against  it.  I  will  give  unto 
thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven;  and 
whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  upon  earth  shall  be  loosed  in 
heaven." 

In  this  surprising  and  extended  response  to  Peter's 
confession,  our  Lord,  with  the  gr-eatest  possible  emphasis, 
proclaimed  himself  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God.  He  de- 
clared, at  the  same  time,  that  this  great  truth,  expressed 
by,  and,  in  a  measure,  personified  in  Peter,  as  he  was 
filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  should  be  the  strong  foun- 
dation of  the  Christian  church.  This  great  truth  is  the 
bed-rock  of  Christianity.  Simon  son  of  Jonah,  not  by 
flesh  and  blood,  but  by  revelation  of  the  Father,  knew  it 
and  expressed  it,  and  our  Lord  approved  it. 

Peter,  very  soon  afterward,  uttered  sentiments  that 
were  not  revealed  to  him  by  the  Father,  nor  dictated  by 
the  Spirit  of  God,  and  Christ  rebuked  him. 

When  Jesus  said  to  Peter,  "I  will  give  to  thee  the  keys 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  he  recognized  him  as  the  rep- 
resentative of  others,  for  essentially  the  same  promise 
was  made  to  all  the  disciples  after  Christ's  resurrection, 
(John  20: 23)  when  he  breathed  on  them,  and  said,  "Re- 
ceive ye  the  Holy  Ghost." 

These  are  most  luminous  and  significant  facts.  When 
Peter,  not  taught  by  flesh  and  blood  but  by  the  Father, 


THE  GREAT  CONFESSION  233 

made  the  great  confession,  he  was  given  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom;  when  the  disciples  were  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  they  had  power  to  forgive  sins ;  when  the  Chris- 
tian church  is  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  only  then, 
it  has  the  keys  of  the  kingdom.  When  Peter  afterwards 
would  presume  to  mislead  his  Master  and  persuade  him 
to  not  make  the  great  sacrifice,  he  receives  the  stern  re- 
buke, "Get  thee  behind  me  Satan;  thou  art  a  stumbling 
block  unto  me;  for  thou  mindest  not  the  things  of  God, 
but  the  things  of  men."  When  the  Christian  church  is 
filled  with  the  Spirit  of  God  it  has  authority,  and  when 
it  is  filled  with  mere  worldly  wisdom  and  would  persuade 
men  against  self-sacrificing  devotion,  its  voice  becomes 
the  voice  of  Satan  and  not  the  voice  of  God. 

The  direct  connection  of  our  Lord's  claim  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  as  Peter  confessed  him,  with  his  foretelling 
that  he  must  go  to  Jerusalem  and  suffer  death ;  the  close 
connection  between  Christ's  high  commendation  of  Peter 
and  his  stern  rebuke  of  Peter,  are  well  adapted  to  arrest 
our  attention ;  and  they  furnish  the  key  to  the  real  mean- 
ing of  his  words.  But  something  more  is  needed  in 
order  to  see  how  this  conversation  concerns  the  Chris- 
tian church,  and  that  something  is  supplied  when  Christ 
goes  on  to  say,  "If  any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me.  For 
whosoever  would  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  whoso- 
ever shall  lose  his  Hfe  for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  For 
what  shall  a  man  be  profited,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole 
world,  and  forfeit  his  life,  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in 
exchange  for  his  life?" 

Our  Lord  is  not  speaking  in  this  place  of  the  soul  of 
man  as  distinct  from  his  body ;  and  he  is  not  speaking  of 
man's  mere  physical  or  mortal  life ;  but  he  is  speaking  of 
the  real  life  of  man  as  created  in  the  image  of  God.     He 


234  JESUS  CHRIST.  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

had  been  speaking  of  the  necessity  for  his  own  sacrifice, 
and  he  shows  that  his  disciples  must  follow  him  by  hav- 
ing the  same  self-sacrificing  spirit.  They  must  not  live 
for  self  but  for  God  as  he  is  revealed  in  Christ;  they 
must  be  ready  to  follow  Christ  who  was  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.  Self  sacrifice  is  self 
saving,  and  self-seeking  or  selfishness  is  suicide.  This  is 
Christ's  teaching  here  and  elsewhere. 

The  instruction  does  not  end  here.  While  this  law  of 
life  will  in  this  sin-cursed  world  bring  suffering,  it  will 
not  always  be  so.  The  disciples  of  Christ  are  not  called 
to  suffer  for  the  sake  of  suffering,  but  because,  in  this 
world  of  sin  and  conflict,  suffering  is  necessary  for  the 
overthrow  of  evil,  and  the  establishment  of  righteous- 
ness. It  will  not  be  so  always,  "The  Son  of  man  shall 
come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  with  his  angels,  and  then 
shall  he  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds." 
Godliness  is  profitable.  There  is  a  divine  selfishness  that 
serves  God,  doing  always  the  right,  and,  trusting  God, 
while  it  waits  for  the  final  triumph  of  right. 

Just  what  was  meant  by  the  promise  that  some  who 
stood  there  should  not  see  death  until  they  had  seen  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  man,  is  doubtful.  It  probably  had 
reference  to  the  judgments  visited  on  Jerusalem  some 
years  afterwards.  There  is  room  for  doubt  also  as  to 
why  our  Lord,  at  this  time,  forbade  his  disciples  telling 
any  man  that  he  was  the  Christ.  In  this  wonderful  con- 
versation with  the  disciples  there  was  a  great  confession, 
a  great  commission,  great  revelation  and  a  great  promise, 
but  the  time  had  not  yet  come  for  a  full  revelation  of  the 
great  mystery  of  suffering  to  the  whole  world. 


XXXVIII 
THE  TRANSFIGURATION 

Mat.  17 :  5.  "While  he  was  yet  speaking,  behold  a  bright  cloud 
overshadowed  them,  and  behold  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud,  saying, 
This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased ;  hear  ye  him." 

(Mat.  17:1-8;   Mark  9:2-8;   Luke  9:  28-36.) 

IF  the  public  ministry  of  our  Lord  covered  a  period  of 
a  little  more  than  three  years,  as  is  generally  be- 
lieved, and  as  we  have  assumed,  his  visit  to  Csesarea 
Philippi  occurred  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  year. 
During  the  first  two  years  he  visited  Jerusalem  twice,  at 
least,  preached  throughout  Galilee,  visited  Samaria,  and 
made  a  tour  through  Phoenicia  and  Decapolis.  His 
popularity  had  reached  its  highest  point.  Many  of  the 
Jews  were  ready  to  crown  him  as  their  King;  the  semi- 
pagans  in  Decapolis  recognized  him  as  Israel's  Messiah, 
and  the  faith  of  his  own  disciples  seemed  stronger  and 
clearer  than  at  any  time  before  his  resurrection.  The 
definite,  comprehensive  confession,  "Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  recognized  him  as  the  fulfill- 
ment of  Old  Testament  prophecy  and  promise,  as  the 
realization  of  Israel's  hope.  The  faith  of  the  disciples 
that  found  expression  in  the  words  of  Peter  constituted 
the  disciples  the  nucleus  of  the  Christian  church.  For 
two  years  Christ's  influence  had  been  deepening  and 
widening  and  the  opposition  had  been  suppressed  by 
popular  sentiment,  but  the  climax  had  been  reached  and 
the  descent  must  begin. 

235 


22fi  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Of  Christ's  movements  during  the  week  following  the 
great  confession  we  have  no  definite  knowledge.  Mat- 
thew and  Mark  tell  us  that,  after  six  days,  he  took  Peter 
and  James  and  John  up  into  a  high  mountain  apart  by 
themselves.  Luke  says,  "About  eight  days  after  these 
sayings,  he  took  with  him  Peter  and  John  and  James  and 
went  up  into  the  mountain  to  pray." 

This  diflference  in  regard  to  time  may  be  explained  by 
saying  that  Luke  only  used  another  method  of  enumerat- 
ing days.  It  seems  more  satisfactory,  however,  to  sup- 
pose that  the  great  confession  took  plac€  on  Sabbath  and 
that  the  going  up  into  the  mountain  occurred  in  the  eve- 
ning after  the  close  of  the  following  Sabbath.  If  this 
were  true,  it  would  be  natural  for  Matthew  and  Mark  to 
speak  of  six  intervening  week  days,  while  Luke  might 
speak  of  the  evening  of  the  following  Sabbath  as  "about 
eight  days  afterwards." 

How  did  Christ  and  his  disciples  spend  this  great  and 
important  week?  If  we  could  answer  this  question  we 
could  point  out  the  real  Mount  of  Transfiguration.  Al- 
ford,  without  giving  any  sufficient  reason,  assumes  that 
this  week  was  spent  journeying  southward,  so  that  the 
Transfiguration  might  have  occurred  on  Mount  Tabor, 
or  some  other  mountain  in  Galilee.  Mark's  statement 
(Mark  9:30),  as  he  tells  of  Jesus  going  forth  through 
Galilee  after  the  Transfiguration  seems  to  contradict  the 
claim  that  he  had  been  in  Galilee  at  the  time  of  the  Trans- 
figuration. 

In  view  of  all  the  known  facts,  and  without  stopping 
to  enumerate  them,  it  seems  most  probable  that  this  week 
was  spent  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Caesarea  Philippi,  and 
that  much  of  the  time  was  devoted  to  instructing  the  dis- 
ciples concerning  the  kingdom.  They  had  professed 
their  faith  in  him  as  the  Messiah,  but,  like  Peter,  they 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  237 

could  not  bear  the  thought  that  their  Master  should  suf- 
fer; that  he  should  be  rejected  by  elders,  chief  priests 
and  scribes;  that  he  should  be  killed.  They  could  not 
at  once  grasp  the  meaning  of  the  promise  that  he  would 
rise  again,  and  of  that  more  distant  promise  of  his  second 
coming.  Jesus  probably  talked  with  them  at  length  con-, 
cerning  these  great  events,  and  then  ascended  Mt.  Har- 
mon, north  of  Caesarea,  where  he  was  transfigured. 

Mount  Hermon  is  the  most  conspicuous  and  beautiful 
mountain  in  Syria.  It  is  at  the  southern  end,  and  is  the 
culminating  point  of  the  Anti-Lebanon  range.  Rising 
to  a  height  of  about  10,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and,  over- 
looking the  whole  Jordan  valley,  it  can  be  seen  from  all 
parts  of  Palestine.  Tristram  visited  Mount  Hermon  and, 
speaking  of  his  ascent,  says,  "we  were  at  last  on  Hermon, 
whose  snowy  head  had  been  a  sort  of  polestar  for  the  last 
six  months.  We  had  looked  at  him  from  Sidon,  from 
Tyre,  from  Carmel,  from  Gerazim,  from  the  hills  about 
Jerusalem,  from  the  Dead  Sea,  from  Gilead  and  from 
Nebo,  and  now  we  were  looking  down  on  them  all." 

Into  this  "high  mountain"  Jesus  Christ  withdrew  with 
Peter,  James  and  John,  the  three  disciples  who  were 
chosen  to  witness  the  raising  of  the  daughter  of  Jairus, 
and,  afterwards,  went  farthest  with  him  into  Gethsemane. 
Why  he  did  not  take  all  his  disciples  to  witness  the  Trans- 
figuration we  are  not  told,  and  we  need  not  inquire.  It  is 
as  well  attested  as  if  all  had  been  present.  Matthew, 
Mark  and  Luke  give  it  a  prominent  place  in  their  narra- 
tives, while  Peter  speaks  of  it  in  his  second  Epistle  (2nd 
Peter  i :  16-18),  and  John  refers  to  it  when  he  says,  "We 
beheld  his  glory,  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the 
Father." 

Christ  had  reached  the  highest  point  of  popularity  and, 
as  he  began  the  descent  that  would  lead  him  to  Calvary, 


238  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

he  went  up  into  this  high  mountain  to  pray  and  to  talk 
with  the  Old  Testament  representatives  of  the  law  and 
the  Prophets  about  his  decease  that  he  was  to  accomplish 
at  Jerusalem.  While  he  prayed,  the  three  disciples, 
"were  heavy  with  sleep,"  as  they  were  afterwards,  when 
he  prayed  in  the  Garden.  When  they  were  aroused  from 
their  semi-conscious  stupor  they  saw  the  face  of  the 
Master  shining  as  the  sun,  while  his  garments  were  white 
as  the  light,  and  Moses  and  Elijah  were  talking  with  him. 
He  had  told  his  disciples  of  the  sufferings  and  death  that 
awaited  him  at  Jerusalem,  and  now  they  saw  him  talking 
with  Moses  and  Elijah  about  the  same  great  event — the 
event  for  which  he  became  incarnate — the  hour  to  which 
all  the  past  history  of  redemption  pointed  forward,  and 
the  hour  to  which  all  the  redeemed  host  in  all  succeeding 
ages  shall  look  backward. 

Peter,  carried  beyond  himself  by  the  transcendent 
glory,  exclaimed,  "It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here ;  if  thou 
wilt,  I  will  make  here  three  tabernacles;  one  for  thee, 
one  for  Moses  and  one  for  Elijah." 

While  he  was  yet  speaking,  behold  a  bright  cloud  over- 
shadowed them;  and,  behold,  a  voic-e  out  of  the  cloud, 
said,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased ; 
hear  ye  him." 

This  was  more  than  the  disciples  could  look  upon,  and 
they  fell  on  their  faces  and  were  sore  afraid  "and,  when 
they  looked  up,  they  saw  no  one  save  Jesus  only." 

This  is  the  simple  but  sublime  story  of  the  Transfigu- 
ration. It  was  a  glimpse  of  heaven's  glory.  This  may 
have  been  a  partial  fulfillment  of  Christ's  words  as  he 
had  said,  "There  be  some  of  them  that  stand  here  who 
shall  in  no  wise  taste  of  death  until  they  see  the  Son  of 
jnan  coming  in  his  kingdom." 


THE  TRANSFIGURATION  239 

Nothing  can  be  added  to  the  beauty,  simplicity  and  sub- 
limity of  this  scene.  God  appeared  to  Moses  on  Mt.  Sinai, 
and,  through  him,  as  Israel's  chosen  mediator,  gave  to  his 
own  people  the  ten  commandments.  On  Mount  Carmel 
God  revealed  himself  as  the  God  of  power,  and,  in  answer 
to  the  prayer  of  Elijah,  sent  fire  to  consume  his  sacrifice 
and  confound  the  prophets  of  Baal.  Sinai  and  Carmel 
only  point  forward  to  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration 
where  Moses  and  Elijah  talked  with  Jesus  Christ  about 
his  decease  that  he  was  about  to  accomplish  at  Jerusalem. 

As  Moses  and  Elijah  disappeared,  a  voice  from  heaven 
said,  "This  is  my  beloved  Son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased. 
Hear  ye  him."  When  the  prostrate  disciples  looked  up, 
they  saw  no  one  save  Jesus  only. 


XXXIX 

HEALING  A  DEMONIAC  BOY 

Mark  9:  23.    "All  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth." 
(Mat.  17 :  9-21 ;   Mark  9 :  9-29 ;  Luke  9 :  37-43.) 

IT  is  not  surprising  that  the  disciples  were  bewildered 
by  what  they  saw  and  heard  at  the  time  of  the 
Transfiguration.  The  prophets  had  foretold  a  suf- 
fering as  well  as  a  reigning  Messiah,  but  the  Jews  had 
looked  only  at  the  promised  glory  and  had  overlooked 
the  predicted  sufferings.  When  the  disciples  found  all 
these  Old  Testament  predictions  condensed  into  the  les- 
sons and  observations  of  a  few  days,  the  contrasts  were 
amazing  and  bewildering.  They  confessed  Jesus  as  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  and  their  confession 
was  approved,  but  they  were  promptly  assured  that  the 
Christ  must  be  rejected  by  the  Jews  and  that  he  must  be 
put  to  death.  Three  disciples  saw  the  Master's  glory  as 
he  talked  with  Moses  and  Elijah,  but  they  heard  also  the 
topic  of  conversation,  "his  decease  that  he  was  about  to 
accomplish  at  Jerusalem."  When  they  were  assured 
that  the  Son  of  man  must  suffer  and  that  they  must  look 
forward  to  his  resurrection  from  the  dead  if  they  would 
see  his  real  glory,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  questioned 
amongst  themselves  what  this  rising  from  the  dead  might 
mean. 

As  Jesus  and  his  three  disciples  came  down  from  the 
mountain  he  charged  them  that  they  should  not  tell  their 
vision  to  any  one  until  the  Son  of  man  should  have  risen 

240 


HEALING  A  DEMONIAC  BOY  241 

from  the  dead.  The  disciples  did  not  know,  at  that  time, 
what  the  rising  from  the  dead  meant,  but  they  seemed  to 
associate  it  with  their  seeing  EHjah,  for  they  asked  the 
Master  to  explain  the  saying  of  the  scribes  that  Elijah 
must  first  come.  In  his  answer  to  this  question  our  Lord 
showed  them  that  John  the  Baptist  was  the  promised  Eli- 
jah, that  he  had  come  and  had  performed  and  suffered 
his  part  in  God's  great  plan  for  the  redemption  of  men, 
and  that  now  the  Son  of  man  must  suffer  many  things 
and  be  set  at  naught. 

One  can  hardly  imagine  a  more  striking  contrast  than 
is  to  be  seen  when  he  places  the  scenes  on  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration  beside  the  events  that  were  witnessed  at 
the  foot  of  th-e  mountain  next  day.  On  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration  he  catches  a  glimpse  of  heaven's  glory 
and  purity,  but  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  he  sees  poor 
sin-cursed  humanity  at  its  worst.  On  the  mountain  he 
sees  Jesus  and  his  disciples  in  company  with  Moses  and 
Elijah,  and  hears  the  Father's  voice  saying,  "This  is  my 
beloved  Son ;"  in  the  valley  he  hears  the  story  of  wretch- 
edness, and  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  kingdom  of 
darkness. 

When  Jesus  apd  the  three  disciples  reached  the  foot  of 
the  mountain  they  found  the  other  disciples  surrounded 
by  a  multitude  including  scribes,  who  were  asking  the 
disciples  questions.  When  the  multitude  saw  Jesus  he 
became  the  great  center  of  interest,  and  he  soon  learned 
the  reason  for  the  great  and  excited  crowd.  A  father 
had  brought  his  demoniac  son  to  the  disciples  that  they 
might  heal  him  and  they  could  not.  Matthew  speaks  of 
the  boy  as  an  epileptic,  but  Mark,  as  usual,  giv€s  a  morg 
minute  account,  as  he  quotes  the  appeal  of  the  boy's 
father  to  Jesus.  The  father  said,  "Master,  I  brought 
unto  thee  my  son  who  hath  a  dumb  spirit,  and  whenso- 


242  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ever  it  taketh  him  it  dasheth  him  down,  and  he  foameth 
and  grindeth  his  teeth  and  pineth  away;  and  I  spake 
unto  thy  disciples  that  they  should  cast  it  out;  and  they 
were  not  able."  The  father's  appeal  includes  the  pa- 
thetic plea,  "He  is  my  only  son."  Jesus  said,  not 
only  to  the  father,  but  to  all  the  company,  "O  faithless 
and  perverse  generation,  how  long  shall  I  be  with  you, 
and  bear  with  you  ?  bring  hither  thy  son." 

As  the  afflicted  boy  came  to  Jesus  "the  demon  dashed 
him  down  and  rent  him  grievously,"  and  when  Jesus  saw 
the  wretched  sufferer,  he  asked  the  father  how  long  his 
son  had  been  in  that  condition.  The  father  answered, 
"From  a  child,  and  ofttimes  it  hath  cast  him  into  the  fire 
and  into  the  waters,  to  destroy  him,  but  if  thou  canst  do 
anything,  have  compassion  on  us,  and  help  us." 

Our  Lord  recognized  the  appeal  to  his  compassion,  but 
he  corrected  the  father's  petition  before  he  granted  it. 
The  father  had  said,  "If  thou  canst  do  anything,"  but 
Jesus  said,  "If  thou  canst!  All  things  are  possible  to 
him  that  believeth." 

When  the  father  heard  these  words  and  felt  that  the 
responsibility  for  his  son's  healing  rested  on  himself,  he 
exclaimed,  "I  believe ;   help  thou  mine  unbelief." 

Again  the  prayer  of  faith,  coupled  with  prayer  for 
faith,  prevailed  and  Jesus  healed  the  boy,  saying  to  the 
unclean  spirit,  "I  command  thee,  come  out  of  him,  and 
enter  no  more  into  him."  The  demon  obeyed,  but  in 
such  a  way  that  the  child  seemed  as  though  he  were  dead. 
Christ  took  him  by  the  hand  and  raised  him  up  and  gave 
him  back  to  his  father. 

After  our  Lord  and  his  disciples  had  come  into  a 
house,  the  disciples  asked  the  Master  why  they  could  not 
cast  out  this  demon,  and  he  replied,  "This  kind  can  come 
out  by  nothing  save  by  prayer."     He  declared  that  their 


HEALING  A  DEMONIAC  BOY  243 

failure  to  heal  the  boy  was  due  to  their  lack  of  faith,  and 
he  added,  "If  ye  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed, 
ye  shall  say  unto  this  mountain,  remove  hence  to  yonder 
place,  and  it  shall  remove,  and  nothing  shall  be  impossi- 
ble unto  you." 

Only  the  most  superficial  student  of  our  Lord's  teach- 
ings could  fail  to  be  deeply  impressed  by  his  constant 
emphasis  of  the  necessity  for  faith.  Faith  seemed  to  al- 
ways be  the  great,  essential  condition  of  the  exercise  of 
his  healing,  saving  power.  There  must  be  faith,  both  in 
the  hearts  of  those  who  seek  help  for  themselves  and  in 
those  who  bring  others  to  be  healed.  When  the  para- 
lytic was  brought  by  four  friends  and  let  down  through 
the  roof,  Jesus,  "seeing  their  faith,"  said  to  the  sick  man, 
"Son,  thy  sins  are  forgiven ;"  when  the  sick  woman  con- 
fessed that  she  had  touched  the  hem  of  his  garment  and 
was  healed,  Jesus  said,  "Daughter,  thy  faith  hath  made 
thee  whole ;"  when  the  Syro-Phoenician  mother  besought 
him  to  heal  her  afflicted  daughter,  Jesus  said,  "O  woman, 
great  is  thy  faith ;"  and  to  this  father,  and  afterwards  to 
his  own  disciples,  Jesus  said,  "All  things  are  possible  to 
him  that  believeth." 

What  was  this  faith  that  Jesus  Christ  so  constantly  de- 
manded and  so  strongly  commended?  What  was  this 
faith  that  seemed  to  measure  and  limit  our  Lord's  own 
omnipotence  ? 

The  answer  to  this  question  may  be  so  elaborate  as  to 
develop  a  whole  system  of  theology  and  involve  the  doc- 
trines of  divine  sovereignty  and  human  freedom.  Or  it 
may  be  very  simple.  Faith  is  the  consciousness  of  see- 
ing God's  face,  hearing  God's  voice,  trusting  God's  prom- 
ises, yielding  to  God's  will  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ. 

If,  with  this  afflicted  father,  we  say  sincerely,  "I  be- 
lieve, help  thou  mine  unbelief,"  we  shall  have  the  power 


244  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  removes  mountains,  the  victory  that  overcomes  the 
world.  It  is  faith  that  links  to  God  in  Christ,  and  clothes 
the  weakest  with  omnipotence.  This  faith  is  more  than 
mere  assent  to  truth.  It  is  the  touch  of  God's  hand,  a 
casting  of  human  weakness  on  the  Almighty  arm  of  the 
living  God.  In  its  essence  it  is  humble  and  trustful,  and 
its  fruit  is  grateful,  adoring  love.  By  faith  Enoch  walked 
with  God ;  by  faith  Noah  built  the  ark  to  the  saving  of 
his  house ;  by  faith  Abraham  went  out  from  the  land  of 
his  fathers  to  journey  through  the  land  of  promise;  by 
faith  Moses  endured  as  seeing  the  invisible  God ;  it  is  by 
faith  that  men  walk  with  God,  overcome  the  world  and 
journey  heavenward. 


XL 
CLOSING  OF  THE  GALILEAN  MINISTRY. 

Mark  9:30.  "And  they  went  forth  from  thence  and  passed 
through  Galilee." 

(Mat.  17:  22-18:22;    Mark  9:30-50;    Luke  9:  43-50-) 

AFTER  leaving  Csesarea  Philippi,  Jesus  and  his 
disciples  traveled  in  the  direction  of  Jerusalem, 
tarrying  a  week  or  two  at  Capernaum  and  other 
points  in  Galilee.  To  this  period  four  events  may  be  as- 
signed, namely,  the  solemn  and  emphasized  prediction  of 
Christ's  sufferings  at  Jerusalem,  the  miraculous  furnish- 
ing of  the  shekel  for  tribute  money,  the  contest  of  the 
disciples  as  to  who  should  be  the  greatest,  and  the  con- 
versation concerning  one  who  cast  out  demons  in  Christ's 
name,  but  did  not  follow  with  his  disciples. 

Christ's  predictions  concerning  his  own  sufferings  and 
death  at  Jerusalem  are  recorded  by  three  evangelists. 
They  all  tell  how  profoundly  the  Master's  words  im- 
pressed the  disciples  at  this  time.  Matthew  says,  "they 
were  exceeding  sorry,"  while  Mark  and  Luke  say,  "they 
understood  not  the  sayings  and  were  afraid  to  ask  him." 
On  the  Mount  Jesus  had  talked  with  Moses  and  Elijah 
about  his  decease  at  Jerusalem,  the  event  for  which  he 
had  become  incarnate.  As  he  went  steadfastly  toward 
Jerusalem  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  great  work  of 
self-sacrifice,  his  words  made  a  profound  impression  on 
his  friends.     When  Moses  came  down  from  Mount  Sinai 

245 


246  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

his  face  shone,  and  when  Jesus  Christ  began  his  journey 
from  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  to  Jerusalem  his 
heart  was  so  full  of  the  great  purpose  of  self-sacrifice 
that  his  words  seemed  to  leave  an  indelible  impression  on 
all  who  heard  them.  The  disciples  did  not  know,  and 
were  afraid  to  ask,  the  meaning  of  their  Master's  words, 
but  they  felt  subdued  and  were  inexpressibly  sad.  They 
did  not  see  just  what  the  Master  saw,  but  they  lived  un- 
der the  shadow  of  a  great  coming  tragedy. 

As  they  were  on  their  way  to  Capernaum  the  disciples 
did  what  seemed  utterly  incongruous  and  inconsistent  with 
the  deep  sorrow  and  adoring  reverence  with  which  they 
had  listened  to  their  Master's  words.  They  had  not 
dared  to  ask  their  Master  what  was  meant  by  his  death 
and  resurrection,  but  when  they  were  separated  from 
him  they  disputed  amongst  themselves  as  to  whom  should 
be  the  greatest.  They  still  cherished  visions  of  an  earth- 
ly kingdom,  and  were  contending  for  the  high  places. 
While  their  Master's  thoughts  were  centered  on  his  own 
great  purpose  of  self-sacrificing  love,  the  disciples  were 
disputing  about  questions  of  petty  selfish  ambition. 

When  they  reached  Capernaum  Jesus  asked  them  what 
they  had  been  reasoning  about  by  the  way.  They  were 
ashamed  to  tell  him  and  held  their  peace.  Nevertheless 
they  did  ask  the  general,  abstract  question,  "Who  is  the 
greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven?" 

Instead  of  answering  their  general  question  in  such  a 
way  as  to  satisfy  the  selfish  ambition  of  any  of  the  con- 
tending parties,  Jesus  took  a  little  child  and,  setting  him 
in  the  midst  of  them,  said,  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Ex- 
cept ye  turn,  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  in  no 
wise  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Whosoever 
therefore  shall  humble  himself  as  this  little  child  the 
same  is  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.     And 


CLOSING  OF  THE  GALILEAN  MINISTRY  247 

whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  my  name  re- 
ceiveth  me :  but  whoso  shall  cause  one  of  these  little 
on€s  which  believe  on  me  to  stumble,  it  is  profitable  for 
him  that  a  great  millstone  should  be  hanged  about  his 
neck,  and  that  he  should  be  sunk  in  the  depth  of  the  sea. 
Woe  unto  the  world  because  of  occasions  of  stumbling! 
for  it  must  needs  be  that  the  occasions  come;  but  woe 
to  that  man  through  whom  the  occasion  cometh !  And 
if  thy  hand  or  thy  foot  causeth  thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  ofif, 
and  cast  it  from  thee;  it  is  good  for  thee  to  enter  into 
life  maimed  or  halt,  rather  than  having  two  hands  or  two 
feet  to  be  cast  into  the  eternal  fire.  And  if  thine  eye 
causeth  thee  to  stumble,  pluck  it  out,  and  cast  it  from 
thee;  it  is  good  for  thee  to  enter  into  life  with  one  eye, 
rather  than  having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  the  hell  of 
fire.  See  that  ye  despise  not  one  of  these  little  ones ;  for 
I  say  unto  you,  that  in  heaven  their  angels  do  always  be- 
hold the  face  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  How 
think  ye?  if  any  man  have  a  hundred  sheep,  and  one  of 
them  be  gone  astray,  doth  he  not  leave  the  ninety  and 
nine,  and  go  unto  the  mountains,  and  seek  that  which 
goeth  astray?  And  if  so  be  that  he  find  it,  verily  I  say 
unto  you,  he  rejoiceth  over  it  more  than  over  the  ninety 
and  nine  which  have  not  gone  astray.  Even  so  it  is  not 
the  will  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  that  one  of 
these  little  ones  should  perish." 

The  earnest  and  extended  answer  of  Jesus  to  the  dis- 
ciples' question  was  a  most  solemn  and  emphatic  rebuke 
to  their  selfish  ambition.  It  was  no  doubt  put  on  record 
because  it  was  for  the  disciples  of  Christ  in  all  the  ages. 
It  rebukes  all  who  selfishly  contend  for  what  seem  to  be 
high  places  in  the  Christian  church,  and  emphasizes  the 
real  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 


248  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Mark  and  Luke  indicate  that  John  interrupted  the  di3- 
course  by  saying,  "Master,  we  saw  one  casting  out  de- 
mons in  thy  name  and  we  forbade  him,  because  he  fol- 
lowed not  us."  This  question  may  have  been  suggested 
by  something  in  the  discourse  of  the  Master,  or  the  ques- 
tion may  have  been  asked  after  Jesus  had  completed  his 
discourse.  J-esus  answered,  "Forbid  him  not;  for  there 
is  no  man  who  shall  do  a  mighty  work  in  my  name,  and 
be  able  quickly  to  speak  evil  of  me.  For  he  that  is  not 
against  us  is  for  us.  Whosoever  shall  give  you  a  cup  of 
water  to  drink,  because  ye  are  Christ's,  verily  I  say  unto 
you  he  shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward." 

In  their  contest  as  to  who  should  be  greatest,  and  in 
their  forbidding  one  to  cast  out  demons  in  Christ's  name 
because  he  did  not  follow  with  them,  the  disciples  had 
shown  that  they  failed  to  understand  and  possess  the 
spirit  of  the  kingdom.  The  lessons  of  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  and  the  more  recent  lessons  concerning  the 
need  of  humble  self-sacrifice  seemed  to  have  been  forgot- 
ten and  Jesus  had  to  go  back  to  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples and  laws  of  his  kingdom.  Doing  this,  he  sought 
to  impress  upon  them  the  great  lesson  that  sensual, 
temporal  things  are  of  little  importance  when  compared 
with  spiritual,  eternal  things.  Their  pride  and  selfish- 
ness were  rebuked  by  contrasting  it  with  the  humility  and 
trust  of  the  little  child;  their  false  idea  of  the  value  of 
high  places  in  the  church  was  rebuked  when  they  were 
assured  that  the  loss  of  a  right  hand,  a  right  foot,  or  a 
right  eye  is  nothing  when  compared  with  the  joys  of 
heaven  and  the  torments  of  hell  in  the  eternal  years. 

This  direct,  practical  and  intense  teaching  is  for  Chris- 
tian disciples  in  all  ages.  The  besetting  sin  of  Chris- 
tians is  the  sin  of  self-seeking.  This  is  the  real  source 
of  nearly  all  the  disgraceful  contentions  that  have  sprung 


CLOSING  OF  THE  GALILEAN  MINISTRY  249 

up  in  the  Christian  church.  Eliminate  the  elements  of 
sensual  self-seeking,  and  the  bitterness  will  fall  out  of 
theological  controversies.  The  tendency  to  hinder  others 
because  they  follow  not  with  us  is  an  unmistakable  evi- 
dence that  we  have  not  the  mind  of  Christ.  Self-seek- 
ing, rather  than  zeal  for  God  or  for  the  truth,  usually 
originates  and  perpetuates  theological  controversies. 

The  incident  concerning  the  tribute  money  occurred  at 
Capernaum,  and  probably  preceded  the  discourse  of 
Christ  that  we  have  been  studying;  but,  since  it  is  only 
recorded  by  Matthew,  we  place  it  after  the  discourse  re- 
corded by  the  three  evangelists. 

When  Jesus  came  to  Capernaum  the  collector  of  the 
temple  tribute  money  asked  Peter  whether  his  Master 
would  pay  the  half  shekel.  Peter  replied  that  he  would. 
When  they  came  into  the  house  Jesus  asked  Peter 
whether  kings  of  the  earth  received  toll  or  tribute  from 
their  sons  or  from  strangers,  and  Peter  answered,  "from 
strangers."  Jesus  replied,  "Therefore  the  sons  are  free ; 
but,  lest  we  cause  them  to  stumble,  go  thou  to  the  sea, 
and  cast  a  hook,  and  take  up  the  fish  that  first  cometh  up ; 
and  when  thou  hast  opened  his  mouth,  thou  shalt  find  a 
shekel ;   that  take,  and  give  unto  them  for  me  and  thee." 

This  half  shekel  was  a  sum  paid  annually  to  the  temple 
in  Jerusalem  by  Jews  of  twenty  years  old  and  upwards. 
There  may  be  some  doubt  as  to  Christ's  meaning  when 
he  indicated  to  Peter  that  he  was  free  from  the  tax  and 
that  Peter  should  have  recognized  the  fact.  Peter  had 
confessed  that  Christ  was  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  but 
he  had  failed  to  see  that,  as  the  Son,  he  was  not  liable  to 
this  tax.  This  may  or  may  not  have  been  the  meaning 
of  Christ's  words  to  Peter,  The  peculiar  method  adopt- 
ed for  securing  the  rnoney  to  pay  the  tax  seemed  designed 


250  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

to  impress  upon  Peter  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  Lord  of 
the  sea  as  well  as  Lord  of  the  temple. 

This  incident  reveals  at  once  Christ's  lack  of  worldly 
wealth  and  his  infinite  resources,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
it  teaches  the  lesson  of  humble  submission  to  injustice  in 
order  to  prevent  stumbling  on  the  part  of  others.  As  the 
Lord  of  the  temple,  Jesus  showed  that  he  should  not 
have  been  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  temple,  yet  he 
pays  the  tax.  As  the  Creator  of  the  universe,  he  owned 
all  the  silv€r  and  gold  in  all  the  world,  yet  he  procured 
tribute  from  the  mouth  of  a  fish  from  the  lake  of  Gennes- 
aret. 


XLI 
ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERUSALEM 

Luke  9:51.    "He  steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem." 
(Luke  9:  51-62;    John  7:1-10.) 

OUR  Lord  has  entered  upon  the  last  six  months  of 
his  mortal  life,  and,  in  order  to  study  each  event 
more  intelligently,  we  pause  and  take  a  general 
survey  of  the  whole  period.  The  principal  events  of  the 
greater  part  of  this  period  are  recorded  only  by  the  evan- 
gelist Luke,  and  he  omits  nearly  all  specifications  as  to 
exact  time,  and  gives  little  information  as  to  place,  so 
that  the  chronological  order  of  events  is  often  uncertain. 
From  the  general  narrative,  extending  from  Luke  9:51 
to  Luke  18:14,  as  it  is  supplemented  by  incidental  in- 
formation contained  in  the  gospel  by  John,  it  seems  evi- 
dent that  Jesus  made  three  journeys  to  Jerusalem  during 
these  last  six  months,  and  that  he  went  once  to  Bethany, 
to  the  house  of  Mary,  Martha  and  Lazarus,  when  he  did 
not  go  to  Jerusalem.  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  agree 
in  their  accounts  of  what  took  place  in  Galilee,  but  Luke 
alone  gives  any  information  of  Christ's  movements  from 
the  time  he  left  Galilee  until  about  the  time  of  his  last 
coming  to  Jerusalem  to  the  passover  at  which  he  suffered. 
Luke's  narrative,  therefore,  becomes  a  connecting  link 
between  the  narratives  of  the  ministry  in  Galilee,  given 
by  the  evangelists  Matthew  and  Mark,  and  the  account 
of  the  Judean  ministry  found  in  the  gospel  by  John, 

251 


252  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

A  careful,  comparative  study  of  the  narratives  given 
by  Luke  and  John  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  went 
from  Capernaum  to  Jerusalem  to  be  present  at  the  feast 
of  tabernacles ;  that  he  then  went  to  Persea,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Jordan,  where  he  remained  until  the  feast  of 
dedication  in  the  latter  part  of  December,  when  he  came 
to  Jerusalem ;  that  he  again  went  to  Peraea,  where  he  re- 
mained until  the  death  of  Lazarus,  when  he  came  to 
Bethany,  and  then,  after  raising  Lazarus,  went  to  Ephra- 
im,  an  unknown  place,  probably  in  Persea  also.  The 
exact  order  of  events  during  this  period  cannot  always 
be  determined,  but  this  general  view  seems  to  make  room 
for  and  throw  light  upon  all  the  different  incidents  re- 
corded. 

Luke  introduces  his  accounts  of  Jesus'  journey  to  Jeru- 
salem by  saying,  "He  steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to 
Jerusalem ;"  while  John  tells  us  that  he  said  to  his  breth- 
ren, "I  go  not  yet  up  unto  the  feast,  because  my  time  is 
not  yet  fulfilled."  At  first  sight  these  two  statements 
seem  to  conflict,  but  when  we  examine  them  closely  the 
seeming  conflict  disappears.  Luke  is  speaking  of  our 
Lord's  general  purpose  to  go  to  Jerusalem  and  suffer 
there,  even  as  he  had  told  his  disciples.  Luke,  therefore, 
could  say  that  Jesus'  whole  course  was  in  the  direction 
of  Jerusalem,  or,  "he  steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to 
Jerusalem."  John  is  speaking  of  an  actual  occurrence 
that  indicated  the  unbelief  and  impatience  of  our  Lord's 
brethren.  These  brethren,  or  relatives  of  Jesus,  did  not 
believe  in  him  in  any  such  way  as  to  have  an  adequate 
conception  of  what  was  meant  by  the  coming  of  his  king- 
dom. They  did,  however,  hope  that  Jesus  would  do 
something  that  would  advance  their  own  material  and 
temporal  interest;  they  were  impatient  at  his  delay  and 
■yvere  seeking  to  provoke  him  to  hasten  bis  manifestation 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERUSALEM  253 

of  himself.  They,  therefore,  said,  "Depart  hence,  and 
go  into  Judea  that  thy  disciples  may  behold  thy  works 
which  thou  doest If  thou  doest  these  things,  mani- 
fest thyself  unto  the  world."  They,  no  doubt,  wished 
Jesus  to  join  the  great  company  of  worshippers  who  were 
journeying  to  Jerusalem;  they  would  have  him  work 
miracles  and  become  the  great  center  of  interest  and  the 
great  theme  of  conversation ;  and,  while  they  did  not 
have  real  faith  in  him  as  the  true  Messiah,  they  probably 
did  hope  that  his  fame  would  advance  their  own  inter- 
ests.    Jesus  replied,  saying,  "My  time  is  not  yet  come 

I  go  not  up  yet  unto  the  Feast."     These  words  and 

the  record,  "He  abode  still  in  Galilee,"  are  altogether 
consistent  with  the  statement  of  Luke  as  he  says  that  he 
steadfastly  set  his  face  to  go  to  Jerusalem. 

Jesus  did  not  travel  with  the  great  company  of  wor- 
shippers as  they  proceeded  toward  Jerusalem,  but  started 
by  a  different  route  that  lay  across  Samaria,  and  this  oc- 
casioned another  incident  that  is  reported  only  by  Luke. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  Jesus  had  passed  north- 
ward through  Samaria,  and  had  been  welcomed  as  the 
Christ  by  the  inhabitants  of  one  Samaritan  village;  but, 
now,  he  is  moving  southward  toward  Jerusalem,  and, 
when  his  disciples  seek  entertainment  for  him  in  a  Sa- 
maritan village,  the  inhabitants  refuse  to  receive  him. 
The  refusal  was  probably  coupled  with  revilings  and 
abuse,  so  that  James  and  John  were  filled  with  indigna- 
tion, and  said  to  Jesus,  "Lord,  wilt  thou  that  we  bid  fire 
to  come  down  from  heaven  and  consume  them  ?" 

This  refusal  of  hospitality  had  rekindled  in  the  hearts 
of  James  and  John  all  their  hereditary  animosity  for  the 
Samaritans,  and  if  they  had  been  able  they  would  have 
destroyed  the  whole  village  more  completely  than  Joshua 
had  exterminated  the  Canaanites.     The  increasing  op- 


254  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

position  to  their  Master  had  made  them  extremely  sensi- 
tive ;  and,  when  they  remembered  his  glory,  as  they  had 
recently  seen  him  talking  with  Moses  and  Elijah  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  their  indignation  was  kindled 
against  these  despised  Samaritans.  James  and  John 
were  only  human,  but  their  Master  was  divine,  and  he  re- 
buked them. 

There  may  be  doubt  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  record 
in  King  James'  Version,  in  which  Jesus  is  represented  as 
adding,  "Ye  know  not  what  manner  of  spirit  ye  are  of ; 
for  the  Son  of  man  is  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives, 
but  to  save  them ;"  nevertheless,  he  probably  said  all  this 
and  much  more.  The  suggestion  of  these  two  disciples 
was  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  him  who  came 
into  the  world  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  and  not  to 
punish  the  guilty. 

After  telling  us  that  Jesus  and  his  disciples  went  to 
another  village  for  entertainment,  Luke  goes  on  to  say 
that  a  certain  man  came  to  Jesus,  saying,  "I  will  follow 
thee  whithersoever  thou  goest;"  and  that  Jesus  said  in 
reply,  "The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air 
have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  his 
head."  Matthew  tells  us  that  this  man  was  a  scribe ;  but 
neither  of  the  evangelists  give  any  information  as  to  why 
our  Lord  discouraged  this  would-be  disciple.  It  is  evi- 
dent, however,  that  he  saw  in  him  something  that  needed 
correction,  and  he  would  not  encourage  him  to  become 
his  disciple  by  permitting  him  to  cherish  false  notions  as 
to  the  character  of  his  kingdom.  Whether  the  man  ever 
became  a  disciple  is  not  known,  for  Luke  proceeds  to  tell 
of  another  man  to  whom  Jesus  said,  "Follow  me;"  and 
the  man  replied,  "Lord  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury  my 
father."  This  man  did  not  decline  the  invitation,  but  he 
did  not  accept  it.    He  wished  to  be  a  disciple  some  time, 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERUSALEM  255 

but  not  until  after  the  death  of  his  father  when  the  old 
home  would  be  broken  up.  To  this  one  Jesus  said, 
"Leave  thou  the  dead  to  bury  their  own  dead;  but  go 
thou  and  publish  abroad  the  kingdom  of  God,"  Nothing 
more  is  known  of  this  man,  for  the  evangelist  again  pro- 
ceeds to  tell  of  another,  who  said  to  Jesus,  "I  will  follow 
thee,  Lord ;  but  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bid  farewell  to 
them  that  are  at  my  house,"  To  this  man  Jesus  replied, 
"No  man,  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  looking 
back,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God."  This  one  also  dis- 
appears without  our  knowing  what  became  of  him. 

This  brief  record  of  these  three  men  disappoints  the 
reader.  We  would  know  what  became  of  each  one. 
But  it  may  be  only  our  curiosity  that  is  not  satisfied. 
Taking  these  three  incidents  together  one  can  hardly  fail 
to  learn  the  great  lesson  our  Lord  would  teach.  In  each 
and  all  of  them  Jesus  demands  a  faith  that  finds  in  him 
a  compensation  for  all  worldly  loss. 

In  view  of  the  time  and  circumstances  it  is  not  strange 
that  Jesus  should  place  such  emphasis  on  the  necessity 
for  whole-heartedness  on  the  part  of  those  who  would  be 
his  disciples.  He  was  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem  to  be  be- 
trayed, arrested,  forsaken,  denied,  condemned,  scourged 
and  crucified.  As  he  looked  forward  to  his  own  self- 
sacrific-e  to  save  men,  is  it  remarkable  that  he  should 
warn  his  disciples,  and  his  would-be  disciples,  against  low 
and  false  ideas  of  the  importance  of  religious  duties? 
He  was  looking  death  in  the  face;  he  was  feeling  the 
power  of  an  endless  life;  he  was  in  the  conscious  pres- 
ence of  eternal  verities  and  was  thinking  of  the  eternal 
years.  He  would  not  have  any  one  follow  him  for  the 
hope  of  earthly  gain.  He  was  about  to  lay  down  his 
own  life,  to  be  forsaken  of  his  Father  in  order  to  redeem 
his  people,  and  if  any  one  would  place  temporal,  earthly. 


256  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

sensual  affection  above  the  interests  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  he  could  not  be  his  follower.  This  record  is  adapt- 
ed to  deeply  impress  men  with  the  infinite  importance  of 
their  religious  duties.  God  in  Christ  must  have  the  first 
place  or  he  will  not  have  any  place.  Between  atheism, 
that  says  there  is  no  God,  and  the  professions  of  religion 
that  give  to  religious  duties  a  secondary  place,  there  is 
only  an  imaginary  line.  Both  are  practical  atheism.  The 
fundamental  facts  of  the  Christian  religion  summon  men 
into  the  presence  of  the  invisible  God  and  the  eternal 
world,  and  should  make  every  one  who  believes  them 
more  enthusiastic  than  Peter,  more  devotedly  loving  than 
John,  more  consecrated  than  Paul.  God  and  the  eternal 
years  are  everything  or  they  are  nothing,  and  religion  in- 
cludes all  the  facts  and  experiences  that  concern  our 
relation  to  God. 


XLII 

MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY,  THE  GOOD  SA- 
MARITAN AND  FIRST  VISIT  TO  BETHANY 

Luke  10 :  i.  "Now  after  these  things  the  Lord  appointed  sev- 
enty others  and  sent  them  two  and  two  before  his  face  into  every 
city  and  place,  whither  he  himself  was  about  to  come." 

(Luke  10:1-42;    Mat.  9:36-38;    11:20-30.) 

INSTEAD  of  following  the  order  of  events  as  they 
are  recorded  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Luke,  Farrar 
and  others  place  th-e  mission  of  the  seventy,  the 
parable  of  the  good  Samaritan  and  the  first  visit  of  Jesus 
to  Bethany  between  the  feast  of  tabernacles  in  September 
and  the  feast  of  dedication  in  December.  The  reasons 
assigned  for  doing  this  are  first,  our  Lord's  rapid  and 
secret  journey  to  Jerusalem  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles 
would  not  afford  sufficient  time  nor  fitting  opportunity 
for  all  these  events.  Second,  the  words  of  Luke  17:  11, 
indicate  that  J-esus  returned  to  Galilee  at  a  later  period 
to  complete  his  ministry  there. 

These  reasons,  however,  are  not  convincing.  The 
sending  out  of  the  seventy,  two  by  two,  to  visit  every 
place  Jesus  was  about  to  visit,  could  not  mean  that  they 
would  go  directly  in  advance  of  him  as  he  journeyed ; 
for,  going,  two  by  two,  the  seventy  could  have  made  ar- 
rangements for  him  to  visit  a  great  many  different  places 
simultaneously.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  they 
went  to  the  different  places  that  Jesus  expected  to  visit 
afterwards.    They  could  in  this  way  visit  many  places 

257 


258  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

during  the  week  or  ten  days  as  they  journeyed  to  Jeru- 
salem to  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  while  Jesus  would  be 
left  to  go  his  own  way  unattended  by  the  usual  multitude. 
The  statement  of  Luke  is  not  conclusive  evidence  that 
Jesus  ever  returned  to  Galilee.  The  words,  "He  was 
passing  through  the  midst  of  Samaria  and  Galilee,"  may 
be  more  accurately  rendered  "passing  along  the  borders 
of  Samaria  and  Galilee."  We,  therefore  follow  the  order 
indicated  by  Luke,  and  place  the  mission  of  the  seventy, 
the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan  and  the  first  visit  to 
Bethany,  prior  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles. 

While  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  tell  of  the  sending 
out  of  the  twelve,  Luke  alone  tells  of  the  mission  of  the 
seventy.  If  Luke  had  not  recorded  the  choosing  of  the 
twelve  there  are  points  of  resemblance  that  might  have 
led  to  the  iirference  that  he  was  only  giving  a  different 
account  of  the  sending  out  of  the  twelve;  but,  since  the 
same  evangelist  records  both  events,  no  such  explanation 
is  possible.  Moreover,  the  expression  "seventy  others" 
evidently  refers  to  the  former  sending  out  of  the  twelve. 

The  mission  of  the  twelve  and  the  mission  of  the  sev- 
enty have  several  points  of  resemblance  and  some  points 
of  contrast.  In  both  there  is  the  command  to  pray  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest  to  send  forth  labourers  into  the  har- 
vest; in  both  there  is  the  assurance  that  the  messengers 
go  forth  "as  sheep  amongst  wolves;"  in  both  the  com- 
mand to  carry  no  purse  is  coupled  with  the  assurance  that 
"the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,"  and  there  is  direc- 
tion to  salute  the  households  into,  which  they  entered 
with  the  salutation  of  peace;  in  both  power  is  given  to 
heal  the  sick,  and  there  is  the  assurance  that  it  will  be 
more  tolerable  for  Sodom  in  the  day  of  judgment  than 
for  the  city  that  refuses  to  receive  the  divinely  commis- 
sioned messengers  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 


MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY  259 

The  most  important  points  of  contrast  between  the 
commissioning  of  the  twelve  and  the  sending  forth  of  the 
seventy  are ;  the  Hmitation  of  the  field  of  the  twelve  "to 
the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel";  the  greater  au- 
thority and  more  definite  instruction  to  the  twelve ;  their 
going  alone,  while  the  seventy  went  "two  and  two" ;  the 
command  to  the  seventy  to  salute  no  man  by  the  way  and 
the  denunciation  of  Chorazin  and  Bethsaida.  These 
points  of  contrast  indicate  the  more  permanent  office  of 
the  twelve,  the  very  limited  time  and  need  of  haste  on  the 
part  of  the  seventy. 

Whether  the  seventy  completed  their  work  and  made 
their  report  before  Jesus  reached  Jerusalem  to  attend  the 
feast  of  tabernacles  is  doubtful.  It  seems  probable, 
however,  that  they  did  not,  but  returned  at  different  times 
two  by  two  as  they  went  out.  Luke  gives  his  account  of 
their  return  in  connection  with  his  account  of  their  going 
forth,  and  we  study  it  in  the  same  connection. 

Luke  says,  "The  seventy  returned  with  joy,  saying, 
Lord  even  the  demons  are  subject  unto  us  in  thy  name." 
Their  success  astonished  them.  They  had  not  only  been 
the  channels  and  instruments  of  divine  power  for  healing 
physical  disease,  but  they  had  exorcised  evil  spirits  and 
had  triumphed  over  the  powers  of  darkness.  Jesus  did 
not  reprove  them  when  they  rejoiced  in  the  success  of 
their  mission,  but  led  them  to  expect  greater  things  as  he 
said,  "I  beheld  Satan  fallen  as  lightning  from  heaven." 
The  seventy  had  cast  out  demons  in  his  name,  but  he 
would  cast  out  Satan,  the  prince  of  demons,  and  would 
destroy  his  work.  Then  he  added  a  remarkable  promise 
as  he  said,  "I  have  given  you  authority  to  tread  upon 
serpents  and  scorpions  and  nothing  shall  in  any  wise  hurt 
you."  While  this  promise  does  not  refer  literally  and 
specifically  to  scorpions  and  serpents,  it  does  include  all 


26o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

evil  powers,  and  is  an  assurance  that  he  who  casts  out 
Satan  controls  all  evil  powers  and  will  permit  no  real  evil 
to  come  upon  any  of  his  faithful  servants. 

Having  approved  the  rejoicing  of  his  disciples  in  the 
evident  success  of  their  mission,  Jesus  warned  them 
against  depending  too  much  on  this  evidence  of  success, 
as  he  added,  "Howbeit  in  this  rejoice  not,  that  the  spirits 
are  subject  unto  you,  but  rejoice  that  your  names  are 
written  in  heaven." 

These  words  are  evidently  for  all  representatives  of 
Christ  in  all  the  ages.  To  some  of  Christ's  servants  is 
given  the  great  joy  of  seeing  multitudes  converted  by 
their  efforts,  while  many  others  labour  just  as  faithfully 
and  see  little  or  no  fruit.  To  some  Christ  gives  the  task 
of  going  forth  and  sowing  the  seed  with  tears,  and  to 
others  he  gives  the  joy  of  entering  into  these  seemingly 
fruitless  labours  and  gathering  an  abundant  harvest.  It 
is  right  to  rejoice  in  evidence  of  successful  labour  for 
Christ,  but  all  true  labourers  can  and  should  rejoice  more 
in  the  assurance  that  their  own  names  are  written  in 
heaven,  and  in  the  confidence  that  the  time  is  coming 
when  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth  shall  rejoice  to- 
gether. 

Luke  goes  on  to  say,  "In  that  hour  Jesus  rejoiced  in 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  said,  I  thank  thee  O  Father,  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,  that  thou  didst  hide  these  things  from 
the  wise  and  understanding  and  didst  reveal  them  unto 
babes."  As  he  said  this  he  seemed  to  have  a  vision  of  the 
future,  in  which  he  saw  the  travail  of  his  own  soul  and 
was  satisfied ;  for  he  proceeded  to  say,  "All  things  have 
been  delivered  unto  me  of  my  Father,  and  no  one  knoweth 
who  the  Son  is,  save  the  Father ;  and  who  the  Father  is, 
save  the  Son,  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to 
reveal  him."    It  is  possible  that  he,  at  this  time,  used  the 


MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY  261 

words  recorded  by  the  evangelist  Matthew,  "Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden  and  I  will  give 
you  rest." 

These  words  of  Jesus  to  the  seventy  are  adapted  to 
comfort  those  who,  in  coming  years,  should  be  burdened 
with  the  thought  that  their  labours  were  fruitless.  Jesus 
laboured  and  the  fruits  of  his  own  labours  seemed  very 
small.  Discouraged  Christian  workers  can  come  to 
Christ  and  learn  of  him  who  was  meek  and  lowly  in  heart 
and  can  find  rest  unto  their  souls.  Not  now,  but  here- 
after, the  record  made  in  heaven  will  be  read  and  all 
errors  of  judgment  will  be  corrected. 

In  these  latter  days,  when  external  success  is  so  ap- 
plauded by  men,  Christ's  words  to  the  returning  seventy 
seem  to  have  peculiar  significance.  He  did  not  object  to 
their  rejoicing,  but  he  warned  them  against  overlooking 
better  reasons  for  rejoicing.  To  the  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart,  to  the  Christ-like  disciple  there  is  a  purer,  deeper 
joy  than  can  come  from  the  external  evidence  of  success. 
To  the  disciples  who  recognize  these  deeper  spiritual 
things  of  the  kingdom,  comes  the  message,  "Blessed  are 
the  eyes  which  see  the  things  ye  see." 

In  immediate  connection  with  his  account  of  the  return 
of  the  seventy,  Luke  tells  of  a  certain  lawyer  who  stood 
up  and  tested  or  tempted  Christ,  saying,  "What  shall  I 
do  to  inherit  eternal  life?" 

This  question  seemed  like  a  practical,  personal  inquiry 
of  one  who  was  seeking  religious  light.  It  might  have 
been  suggested  by  what  Jesus  had  said  about  things  being 
concealed  from  the  wise  and  prudent  and  revealed  unto 
babes,  or  by  what  he  had  said  to  the  seventy  about  hav- 
ing their  names  written  in  heaven.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  it  was  prompted,  in  part  at  least,  by  desire  to 
test  Christ's  ability  as  a  religious  teacher. 


262  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

In  his  answer  Jesus  recognized  this  lawyer's  intelli- 
gence, as  he  said,  "What  is  written  in  the  law,  how  readest 
thou?"  As  a  teacher  of  the  law,  the  lawyer  could  not 
object  to  this  answer  of  a  question  by  a  question,  and  he 
answered  directly,  giving  the  sum  of  the  ten  command- 
ments in  essentially  the  same  words  that  Jesus  used  on 
two  occasions,  saying,  "Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all 
thy  strength  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself."  As  a  scribe,  familiar  with  the  law,  he  would 
probably  combine  Deut.  6:  5  with  Leviticus  19:  18,  as  he 
gave  this  summary  of  the  law.  Jesus  approved  his  answer, 
saying,  "Thou  hast  answered  right,  this  do  and  thou  shalt 
live." 

The  lawyer  had  answered  his  own  question  and  should 
have  been  satisfied,  but  he  was  not.  He  knew  that  he 
could  not  claim  eternal  life  on  this  condition.  He  could 
not  object  to  this  law  that  demanded  supreme  love  of 
God  and  love  for  his  neighbour,  and  he  did  not  seem  so 
much  troubled  by  his  failure  to  love  God  whom  he  had 
not  seen  as  he  did  about  his  failure  to  love  his  neighbour 
whom  he  had  seen.  In  order  to  "justify  himself,"  he  said 
to  Jesus,  "Who  is  my  neighbour?" 

Jesus  replied,  "A  certain  man  was  going  down  from 
Jerusalem  to  Jericho ;  and  he  fell  among  robbers,  which 
both  stripped  him  and  beat  him,  and  departed,  leaving 
him  half  dead.  And  by  chance  a  certain  priest  was  going 
down  that  way :  and  when  he  saw  him,  he  passed  by  on 
the  other  side.  And  in  like  manner  a  Levite  also,  when 
he  came  to  the  place,  and  saw  him,  passed  by  on  the  other 
side.  But  a  certain  Samaritan,  as  he  journeyed,  came 
where  he  was:  and  when  he  saw  him,  he  was  moved  with 
compassion,  and  came  to  him,  and  bound  up  his  wounds, 
pouring  on  them  oil  and  wine ;    and  he  set  him  on  his 


MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY  263 

own  beast,  and  brought  him  to  an  inn,  and  took  care  of 
him.  And  on  the  morrow  he  took  out  two  pence,  and 
gave  them  to  the  host,  and  said.  Take  care  of  him ;  and 
whatsoever  thou  spendest  more,  I,  when  I  come  back 
again,  will  repay  thee.  Which  of  these  three,  thinkest 
thou,  proved  neighbour  unto  him  that  fell  among  the 
robbers?  And  he  said,  He  that  shewed  mercy  on  him. 
And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Go,  and  do  thou  likewise." 

The  lawyer  had  introduced  the  term  "neighbour"  and 
then  had  asked  Jesus  to  define  the  term,  and  in  the  end 
answered  his  own  question.  He  may  have  asked  the 
question  because  he  had  an  impression  that  Christ's  teach- 
ing concerning  brotherhood  was  broader  than  that  of  the 
ordinary  Jewish  teacher,  or  he  may  have  asked  it  because 
his  own  conscience  was  not  quite  satisfied.  Whatever  his 
motive,  we  may  be  thankful  that  he  asked  and  answered 
this  question,  for,  by  so  doing,  he  has  given  to  his  own 
and  every  succeeding  age,  a  beautiful  and  luminous  par- 
able. 

In  the  parable  Jesus  may  have  had  no  special  reason  for 
putting  the  priest  and  the  Levite  in  bad  contrast  with  the 
Samaritan.  The  lawyer  would  not  have  recognized  a 
Samaritan  or  gentile  as  his  neighbour,  and  the  parable  is 
adapted  to  emphasize  the  great  truth  that  love  for  our 
fellow  men  must  not  be  limited  by  national  or  ecclesi- 
astical lines.  This  unfortunate  man  was  of  no  nationality. 
He  might  have  been  either  Jew  or  gentile.  His  great 
characteristic  was  that  he  was  in  need  of  help.  The  priest 
and  the  Levite  saw  him  and  could  have  helped  him,  but 
they  passed  by  on  the  other  side.  The  Samaritan  had 
compassion  on  the  victim  of  misfortune  and  robbery,  and, 
binding  up  his  wounds,  made  provision  for  him  until  he 
should  be  able  to  care  for  himself.  When  the  story  was 
told  and  the  appeal  was  made  to  the  lawyer  to  say  who 


264  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

was  neighbour  to  the  man  who  had  fallen  amongst  thieves, 
he  could  only  give  one  answer,  "he  that  showed  mercy  on 
him." 

There  is  something  in  every  human  heart  that  compels 
approval  of  this  judgment.  In  the  sight  of  men,  as  well 
as  in  the  sight  of  God,  the  despised  Samaritan  whose 
heart  is  full  of  real  compassion  must  ever  outrank  the 
cold,  heartless  formalist,  though  he  be  robed  priest  or  of 
the  tribe  of  Levi.  So  long  as  this  parable  is  accepted  as 
Christ's  answer  to  the  question  "who  is  my  neighbour?" 
so  long  ecclesiastical  position  and  professions  of  ortho- 
doxy can  never  be  reckoned  as  substitutes  for  brotherly 
love  and  Christian  compassion.  Compassionless  Chris- 
tians cannot  claim  eternal  life  either  by  law  or  by  grace. 

After  recording  the  parable  of  the  good  Samaritan, 
Luke  says,  "Now  as  they  went  on  their  way,  he  entered 
into  a  certain  village  :  and  a  certain  woman  named  Martha 
received  him  into  her  house.  And  she  had  a  sister  called 
Mary,  which  also  sat  at  the  Lord's  feet,  and  heard  his 
word.  But  Martha  was  cumbered  about  much  serving; 
and  she  came  up  to  him,  and  said.  Lord  dost  thou  not 
care  that  my  sister  did  leave  me  to  serve  alone?  bid  her 
therefore  that  she  help  me.  But  the  Lord  answered  and 
said  unto  her,  Martha,  Martha,  thou  art  anxious  and 
troubled  about  many  things :  but  one  thing  is  needful : 
for  Mary  hath  chosen  the  good  part,  which  shall  not  be 
taken  away  from  her." 

We  are  accustomed  to  think  of  these  three  as  the  life- 
long friends  of  Jesus,  but  it  is  probable  that  Jesus  never 
entered  their  home  until  within  six  months  of  his  death. 
He  probably  came  here  by  invitation  as  he  was  on  his 
way  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles.  During  this  feast  he 
would  not  dwell  in  the  house,  but  in  a  leafy  booth  accord- 
in^  to  the  law.    It  is  probable  that  the  disciples  had  gone 


MISSION  OF  THE  SEVENTY  265 

into  Jerusalem  while  Jesus  turned  aside  to  Bethany  to 
enjoy  the  hospitality  of  this  family.  During  the  first  part 
of  the  feast  Lazarus  would  be  in  the  holy  city  and,  there- 
fore, only  Mary  and  Martha  are  mentioned  as  entertain- 
ing Jesus.  Martha  seemed  to  be  the  head  of  the  household 
and  received  their  honoured  guest.  Both  sisters  sought  to 
honour  Jesus,  but  in  different  ways.  Martha  s'howed  her 
regard  by  great  carefulness  in  serving,  but  Mary  sat  at 
his  feet  and  heard  with  delight  his  words.  The  complaint 
of  Martha  was  inconsistent  with  the  true  spirit  of  hospi- 
tality, nevertheless  it  enlists  the  sympathy  of  the  average 
reader.  The  very  brief  record  of  this  incident  only  en- 
ables the  reader  to  see  two  different  types  of  good  women. 
But  for  our  Lord's  words,  the  average  reader  would  be  in 
sympathy  with  Martha.  In  the  light  of  what  he  said  in 
reply  to  Martha's  complaint  we  can  see  no  condemnation 
of  great  Christian  activity,  but  there  is  criticism  of  rest- 
less, anxious,  impatient  activity  concerning  the  external 
duties  of  religion  when  they  interfere  with  receiving  the 
deeper,  better  spiritual  things  that  God  would  give  to  his 
people.  The  noise  and  bustle  of  formal  worship  and 
service  must  not  be  permitted  to  interfere  with  peaceful, 
trustful,  spiritual  communion  with  God  which  Christ  de- 
scribes as  the  good  part  that  shall  not  be  taken  from  us. 
Martha  was  not  condemned  for  her  carefulness  so  much 
as  for  her  complaint.  If  Mary  had  complained  to  Jesus 
that  Martha  was  impatient  about  trifles  and  incapable  of 
appreciating  spiritual  things,  it  is  probable  that  Martha 
would  have  been  defended  and  Mary  reproved.  Each 
type  may  be  both  commended  and  reproved ;  commended 
for  zeal  or  love,  but  reproved  for  fault-finding  and 
thoughtlessness  in  regard  to  the  burdens  of  others. 


XLIII 

AT  THE  FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES 

John  7 :  14.    "But  when  it  was  now  the  midst  of  the  feast,  Jesus 
went  up  into  the  temple  and  taught." 
(John  7:  10-52.) 

THE  feast  of  tabernacles  was  observed  in  the  au- 
tumn when  all  the  chief  fruits  of  the  ground,  the 
corn,  the  wine  and  the  oil  had  been  gathered.  It 
lasted  seven  days  and  was  followed  by  a  day  of  convo- 
cation that  may  have  been  termed  "the  last,  the  great  day 
of  the  feast."  During  the  seven  days  the  Israelites  dwelt 
in  booths  and  so  many  sacrifices  were  ofifered  amid  so 
great  rejoicings  as  to  give  this  feast  a  preeminent  place 
amongst  Jewish  festivals.  In  the  observance  of  the  feast 
in  New  Testament  times  there  was  the  ceremony  of  pour- 
ing out  water  of  the  pool  of  Siloam  and  the  display  of 
great  lights  in  the  court  of  the  women. 

When  the  people  came  together  for  the  observance  of 
this  particular  feast  of  tabernacles,  the  fame  of  Jesus  had 
filled  the  whole  land,  and,  while  some  said  he  was  a  good 
man,  others  said  that  he  was  deceiving  and  misleading  the 
people.  The  discussion,  however,  was  carried  on  secretly 
because  the  people  feared  the  condemnation  of  their 
rulers,  and  the  rulers  feared  the  people.  If,  as  we  have 
inferred,  the  disciples  of  Jesus  came  directly  to  the  Holy 
City  while  he  turned  aside  to  Bethany,  they  would  hear 
discussions  concerning  their  Master,  but  they  would  not 
be  disposed  to  give  any  information  concerning  him. 

266 


AT  THE  FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES        267 

The  feast  of  the  tabernacles  was  attended  by  many 
foreign  pilgrims  who  could  not  come  so  easily  to  the 
feast  of  the  passover  or  of  pentecost.  Many  of  these 
Jewish  pilgrims,  from  Italy  and  Spain,  in  the  west,  from 
Media,  Arabia  and  Persia  in  the  east,  and  from  other 
foreign  lands,  had  never  seen  Jesus  and  would  be  eager  to 
see  one  who  had  gained  such  a  reputation  as  a  miracle- 
worker,  and  had,  at  the  same  time,  aroused  such  bitter 
enmity  in  the  hearts  of  the  Jewish  rulers. 

There  were  at  least  three  classes  who  wished  to  see 
Jesus  at  this  feast;  his  brethren,  who  hoped  he  might 
gratify  their  selfish  ambition ;  the  Jews,  who  hated  him, 
and  these  foreigners  who  wished  to  satisfy  their  curiosity. 

Jesus  was  probably  in  the  home  of  Mary,  Martha  and 
Lazarus  during  the  first  two  or  three  days  of  the  feast, 
but,  about  the  middle  of  the  feast,  suddenly,  unannounced 
he  appeared  in  the  temple  and  began  to  teach  the  people. 

This  was  probably  Christ's  first  preaching  in  the  temple. 
He  had  cleansed  the  temple  on  a  former  visit,  but  there 
is  no  record  of  his  having  taught  there  publicly  up  to  this 
time.  His  teaching,  as  well  as  his  sudden  appearance, 
surprised  the  people.  As  a  boy  twelve  years  old  he  had 
astonished  the  Jewish  rabbis,  and  now  the  Jews  marveled, 
saying,  "How  knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never 
learned  ?"  They  were  surprised  that,  one  who  had  not  at- 
tended a  school  of  the  prophets  nor  sat  at  the  feet  of  any 
great  teacher,  should  have  such  knowledge  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  should  be  in  that  sense  a  man  of  letters. 

Jesus  explained  the  marvel  and  answered  their  inquiries 
by  saying,  "My  teaching  15  not  mine,  but  his  that  sent  me." 
He  declared  also  that  the  obedient  spirit  was  the  essential 
test  of  doctrine,  when  he  added,  "If  any  man  willeth  to  do 
his  will  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching,  whether  it  be  of 
God  or  whether  I  speak  from  myself."    This  was  equiva- 


268  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

lent  to  saying  that  ability  to  grasp  and  understand  the 
truth  could  not  be  gained  from  great  teachers  so  long  as 
there  was  a  disobedient  spirit,  and,  if  there  were  an 
obedient  spirit,  great  teachers  were  not  necessary. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  a  bitter  controversy  that  can 
only  be  understood  by  recalling  Jesus'  former  visit  to 
Jerusalem  when  he  cleansed  the  temple  and  healed  the 
blind  man  on  the  Sabbath.  By  driving  the  greedy,  sacri- 
legious Sadducees  from  the  temple  he  incurred  their  bitter 
enmity;  by  healing  on  the  Sabbath  day  and  defending 
his  action  he  touched  both  the  prejudice  and  pride  of  the 
Pharisees.  When  he  left  Judea  and  taught  in  Galilee  he 
came  in  constant  conflict  with  Jewish  rulers  until  it  be- 
came an  open  secret  that  his  enemies  were  conspiring  to 
kill  him.  This  murderous  purpose  had  not  been  formu- 
lated or  decreed  by  any  court  or  council  of  the  Jews,  but 
was  so  evident  as  to  be  generally  known.  Jesus  referred 
to  it  as  he  said,  "Why  seek  ye  to  kill  me?"  The  Jews 
answered  saying,  "Thou  hast  a  demon;  who  seeketh  to 
kill  thee?" 

In  reply  to  this  question  Jesus  referred  to  what  had 
taken  place  on  his  former  visit  to  Jerusalem  and  his  heal- 
ing on  the  Sabbath  day  when  he  said,  "I  did  one  work 
and  ye  marvel.  For  this  cause  hath  Moses  given  you  cir- 
cumcision (not  that  it  is  of  Moses,  but  of  the  fathers)  ; 
and  on  the  Sabbath  ye  circumcise  a  man.  If  a  man  re- 
ceiveth  circumcision  on  the  Sabbath,  that  the  law  of 
Moses  may  not  be  broken  ;  are  ye  wroth  with  me,  because 
I  made  a  man  every  whit  whole  on  the  Sabbath  ?  Judge 
not  according  to  appearance,  but  judge  righteous  judg- 
ment." 

This  argument  seemed  to  satisfy  a  part  of  the  people 
and  they  began  to  say,  "Is  not  this  he  whom  they  seek 
to  kill?    And  he  speaketh  openly  and  they  say  nothing 


AT  THE  FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES        269 

unto  him.  Can  it  be  that  the  rulers  indeed  know  that 
this  is  the  Christ?"  Nevertheless,  the  multitude  who 
were  asking  these  questions  did  not  know  their  own 
minds,  for  they  added,  "Howbeit  we  know  this  man 
whence  he  is ;  but  when  the  Christ  cometh,  no  one  know- 
eth  whence  he  is." 

To  this  confused  answer  Jesus  replied,  "Ye  both  know 
me,  and  know  whence  I  am,  and  I  am  not  come  of  myself, 
but  he  that  sent  me  is  true,  whom  ye  know  not.  I  know 
him ;  because  I  am  from  him  and  he  sent  me." 

This  was  about  equivalent  to  saying  that  they  knew 
him  in  a  sense,  but  that  they  did  not  know  him  as  the 
messenger  from  God,  because  they  did  not  know  God. 
They  did  not  recognize  his  real  character  as  the  Son  of 
God  and,  therefore,  had  no  real  knowledge  of  him  or  of 
whence  he  came. 

In  the  midst  of  the  excitement,  when  the  fickle  multi- 
tude were  divided  and  wavering  between  belief  and  un- 
belief, the  Jewish  rulers  seem  to  have  withdrawn  from  the 
crowd  to  some  council  chamber  in  another  part  of  the 
temple,  where  they  held  a  formal  or  informal  conference. 
The  result  of  this  conference  was  the  sending  of  officers 
to  arrest  Jesus.  The  coming  of  these  officers  seemed  to 
suggest  to  our  Lord's  prophetic  soul  a  future  time  when 
he  would  be  arrested  and  killed,  for  he  said,  "Yet  a  little 
while  I  am  with  you  and  I  go  unto  him  that  sent  me.  Ye 
shall  seek  me  and  shall  not  find  me,  and  where  I  am  ye 
cannot  come." 

These  words  added  to  the  confusion  of  the  Jews  that 
were  pre'sent,  and  they  said  amongst  themselves,  "Whith- 
er will  this  man  go  that  we  shall  not  find  him  ?  will  he  go 
unto  the  Dispersion  among  the  Greeks  and  teach  the 
Greeks?" 


270  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

In  the  meantime  the  officers  who  came  to  arrest  Jesus, 
seeing  the  excitement  and  fearing  that  his  arrest  might 
precipitate  a  riot  and  resuU  in  the  calling  in  of  the  Roman 
guards,  or  for  other  reasons,  failed  to  execute  their  com- 
mission, and  returned  to  the  chief  priest  and  Pharisees 
without  him.  When  they  were  asked  why  they  had  not 
brought  hun  they  said,  "Never  man  so  spake."  The 
Pharisees  therefore  answered  them,  "Are  ye  also  led 
astray?  Hath  any  of  the  rulers  believed  on  him,  or  of 
the  Pharisees?  But  this  multitude  which  knoweth  not 
the  law  are  accursed.  Nicodemus  saith  unto  them  (he 
that  cometh  to  him  before,  being  one  of  them),  Doth  our 
law  judge  a  man,  except  it  first  hear  from  himself  and 
know  what  he  doeth  ?  They  answered  and  said  unto  him. 
Art  thou  also  of  Galilee?  Search  and  see  that  out  of 
Galilee  ariseth  no  prophet," 

Nicodemous  probably  did  not  know  that  Jesus  was  born 
in  Bethlehem,  but  he  might  have  referred  the  Jews  to  the 
fact  that  Jonah,  Elijah,  and  Nahum  and  others  were 
Galileans. 

The  last  great  day  of  the  feast  found  Jesus  teaching  the 
people,  and  about  the  time  when  the  priest  was  pouring 
the  water  of  Siloam  from  the  golden  pitcher  into  the 
silver  funnel  west  of  the  altar,  Jesus  cried  to  the  multi- 
tude "If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and 
drink.  He  that  believeth  on  me,  as  the  Scripture  hath 
said,  Out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers  of  living  waters." 

The  intensity  of  this  proclamation  and  the  impression 
made  on  the  multitude  are  indicated  by  the  record  that 
some  of  those  present  said,  "This  is  of  a  truth  the  proph- 
et"; Others  said.  "This  is  the  Christ";  but  others  ob- 
that  Jesus  was  only  a  Galilean  and  that  the  Christ  was  to 
come  of  the  seed  of  David  and  from  Bethlehem. 


XLIV 
THE  WOMAN  ACCUSED  OF  ADULTERY 

John  8:7.     "He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let  him  first 
cast  a  stone  at  her." 
(John  7:53-8:11.) 

THE  history  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery  is 
found  in  the  received  text,  and  includes  the 
last  verse  of  the  seventh  and  the  first  eleven 
verses  of  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  gospel  by  John.  It 
is  not  found  in  the  oldest  manuscripts,  and  a  majority 
of  the  most  able  and  conservative  Bible  students  in 
this  day  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  not  writ- 
ten by  the  evangelist  John.  Augustine  and  others 
who  hold  that  it  was  a  part  of  the  original  manuscript, 
would  explain  its  not  being  found  in  the  oldest 
existing  manuscripts  by  saying  that  it  was  expurged 
because  of  the  supposed  license  given  to  sin.  It  should  be 
said,  however,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  entire  diversity 
from  the  style  of  narrative  of  John  is  regarded  by  many 
as  sufficient  reason  for  questioning  its  genuineness  even 
if  it  had  a  place  in  the  oldest  manuscripts.  Edersheim 
leaves  it  out  of  the  history  altogether,  and  says,  in  a  foot 
note,  that  "it  presents  a  veritable  climax  of  impossibili- 
ties." He  does  not,  however,  produce  any  adequate  rea- 
son for  so  sweeping  an  assertion.  If  it  were  found  in  the 
best  manuscripts,  there  is  no  objection  literary,  ethical 
or  historical  that  would  warrant  any  hesitation  in  ac- 
cepting it;  and,  in  view  of  all  the  known  facts,  we  are 

271 


2^2  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

inclined  to  believe  that  it  is  a  substantially  correct  ac- 
count of  an  historical  event,  even  if  it  was  not  originally 
written  by  John  the  evangelist.  The  candid  and  intel- 
ligent student  will  not  find  in  it  the  shadow  of  an  ap- 
proval of  sin.  In  it  all  Jesus  manifests  the  pure  and  lov- 
ing compassion  of  one  who  came  to  seek  and  to  save  the 
lost.  No  event  in  his  history  places  his  spirit  in  more 
direct  contrast  with  the  spirit  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
than  this  event.  Heartless,  compassionless  hypocrites, 
caring  nothing  for  real  purity,  but  filled  with  malicious 
and  cunning  hatred,  saw  in  this  wretched  sinful  woman  a 
possible  means  of  harassing  and  annoying  Jesus  Christ 
by  compelling  him  to  either  approve  her  execution  or  to 
come  in  conflict  with  the  law  of  Moses.  (Deut.  22:  22.) 
These  Jews  assumed  the  attitude  of  champions  of  purity 
according  to  the  demands  of  the  law  of  Moses,  but  they 
would  throw  on  Jesus  Christ  the  responsibility  of  mak- 
ing the  application  of  that  law  in  this  particular  case,  for 
they  inquired,  "What  then  sayest  thou  of  her?" 

There  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  woman's  guilt,  but,  if  her 
accusers  were  zealous  for  the  righteous  enforcement  of 
the  law,  why  had  they  not  brought  the  man  with  the 
woman?  Was  this  a  miniature  picture  of  the  world's 
way  of  dealing  with  this  sin  in  all  the  ages? 

The  mortal  agony  of  a  sinful  woman  kindled  no  com- 
passion in  the  hard  hearts  of  her  accusers  as  they  cun- 
ningly constructed  this  trap  to  bring  the  great  Teacher 
into  disrepute.  It  seemed  as  though  Jesus  must  either 
approve  the  sentence,  and,  by  so  doing  possibly  involve 
himself  with  the  Romans,  or  he  must  array  himself 
against  this  law  of  Moses.  At  first  he  seemed  either  to 
hesitate  or  to  disregard  the  appeal  that  had  been  made  to 
him,  for  he  stopped  and  wrote  with  his  finger  on  the 
ground.    When  they  pressed  the  question  upon  him,  rais- 


THE  WOMAN  ACCUSED  OE  ADULTERY   273 

ing  himself  from  his  stooping  attitude,  and  looking  with 
divine  dignity,  not  only  into  their  faces,  but  into  the 
most  profound  recesses  of  their  impure,  hypocritical 
hearts,  he  said,  "He  that  is  without  sin  among  you,  let 
him  first  cast  a  stone  at  her."  His  words  were  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  discerning  the  thoughts  and  pur- 
poses of  the  self-righteous  accusers,  and,  while  he  again 
stooped  and  wrote  on  the  ground,  they  passed  out  one 
by  one,  beginning  from  the  eldest  even  unto  the  last. 
They  had  been  summoned  before  the  bar  of  their  own 
consciences,  and  conscience  made  cowards  of  them  all. 

When  Jesus  again  looked  up,  they  were  all  gone  and 
he  said  to  the  woman,  "Where  are  they  ?  did  no  man  con- 
demn thee?"  she  said,  "No  man,  Lord."  He  then  said 
to  the  woman,  "Neither  do  I  convict  or  condemn  thee ; 
go  thy  way;  from  henceforth  sin  no  more."  Misery  and 
mercy  were  alone  together.  Compassion  for  lost  sinners 
had  brought  Jesus  Christ  down  into  this  sinning,  suf- 
fering world,  and  it  is  only  in  the  world's  judgment  that 
this  woman  had  committed  the  unpardonable  sin.  To 
this  sinner,  as  well  as  to  others,  Jesus  Christ  could 
bring  pardon,  and  to  this  sinner,  as  to  all  others  whose 
sins  are  forgiven,  he  said,  "from  henceforth  sin  no 
more." 

This  account  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery  may 
lack  the  evidence  necessary  to  convince  the  devout  Bib- 
lical critic  that  it  is  genuine ;  but  it  certainly  cannot  be 
excluded  on  ethical  grounds.  It  reveals  the  compassion- 
ate spirit  of  Jesus  in  contrast  with  the  heartless  spirit 
of  his  enemies ;  and  it  teaches  lessons  that  the  purest  and 
truest  men  and  women  of  this  generation  will  admit  the 
Christian  church  should  lay  to  heart.  The  law  of  Moses 
was  a  school-master  to  lead  to  Christ,  and  it  may  seem 
harsh,  but  it  was  not  more  cruel  than  the  law  that  now 


274  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

prevails  in  the  social  world  and  it  was  much  more  con- 
sistent. The  words  of  Christ  to  the  accusers  in  this  case 
do  not  differ  essentially  from  his  words  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  as  he  says,  "Cast  out  first  the  beam  out  of 
thine  own  eye,  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast  out 
the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye." 

Speaking  of  the  fact  that  eminent  fathers  of  the  church 
ignore  or  speak  of  this  narrative  apologetically,  Farrar 
says,  "The  mixture  which  it  displays  of  tragedy  and  of 
tenderness,  the  contrast  which  is  involved  between  low, 
cruel  cunning  and  exalted  nobility  of  intellect  and  emo- 
tion, transcend  all  power  of  human  imagination  to  have 
invented  it ;  while  a  picture  of  the  divine  insight,  reading 
the  inmost  secrets  of  the  heart  and  yet  a  divine  love,  which 
sees  those  inmost  secrets  with  larger  eyes  than  ours, 
furnish  us  with  a  conception  of  Christ's  power  and  per^ 
son  too  lofty  to  be  founded  on  anything  but  fact." 


XLV 
JESUS  TEACHING  IN  THE  TEMPLE 

John  8:  12.    "Again  therefore  Jesus  spake  unto  them  saying,  1 
am  the  light  of  the  world." 
(John  8:  12-59.) 

THE  time  and  circumstances  in  which  the  con- 
troversy recorded  John  8:  12-59,  took  place  de- 
pend on  whether  the  last  verse  of  the  seventh  chap- 
ter and  the  first  eleven  verses  of  the  eighth  chapter  be  ex- 
cluded. If  this  part  of  the  record  should  be  eliminated, 
the  events  recorded  in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighth  chap- 
ter occurred  on  the  last  day  of  the  feast  in  immediate 
connection  with  the  failure  to  arrest  Jesus.  If  this  part 
of  the  record  be  retained  the  events  recorded  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  eighth  chapter  took  place  on  the  octave 
or  eighth  day  of  the  feast,  the  day  added  to  the  original 
seven  days.  Retaining  this  record  we  assume  that  the 
real  order  of  events  is  given  in  the  received  text  and  is 
as  follows. 

At  the  close  of  the  controversy,  on  the  seventh  day, 
the  people  went  to  their  homes  and  Jesus  went  out  into 
the  mount  of  Olives.  Early  next  morning  Jesus  came 
to  the  temple  and  was  asked  to  pass  judgment  on  a  sin- 
ful woman  who  had  been  brought  before  him  either  be- 
fore or  after  he  had  been  teaching  in  what  was  known  as 
the  "treasury"  of  the  temple.  Later  in  the  day  he  re- 
moved to  one  of  the  porches  or  courts  of  the  temple  and 
continued  to  teach  until  the  audience  became  an  angry 

275 


2^6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

mob,  and  he  passed  out,  and  they  took  up  stones  to 
stone  him. 

Jesus'  first  proclamation  on  this  eventful  day  was 
probably  suggested  by  his  surrounding.  On  other  occa- 
sions he  had  said,  "behold  the  lilies,"  and  "behold  a  sow- 
er went  forth  to  sow,"  and,  now  he  is  near  the  great  can- 
delabra that  during  the  feast  of  tabernacles  shed  forth 
its  light  over  the  entire  city.  From  these  lights  he  drew 
the  imagery  of  his  discourse,  as  he  proclaimed  himself 
the  "light  of  the  world."  His  words  formed  a  sweeping 
proclamation.  Only  the  divine  Son  of  God  could  truly 
say  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world."  Certainly  no  mere 
man  would  put  himself  forward  as  the  light  of  the  world 
and  declare  truly,  "He  that  followeth  me  shall  not  walk 
in  darkness,  but  shall  have  the  light  of  life." 

In  this  proclamation  Jesus  placed  himself,  not  only 
above  the  other  religious  teachers  of  his  own  day,  but 
above  Moses  and  the  other  inspired  prophets  of  the  olden 
time.  He  claimed  the  preeminent  and  unique  place  that 
was  only  possible  to  the  omniscient  who  knew  all  things 
in  all  their  causes,  consequences  and  relations.  He  was 
not  willing  to  be  reckoned  a  light,  but  would  be  acknowl- 
edged the  light  of  the  world.  For  any  mere  man  to 
make  such  a  claim  would  be  the  most  presumptious  ego- 
tism. Moses,  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  Egypt,  Soc- 
rates, the  sage  of  Greece,  or  Solomon,  the  wisest  of  men, 
were  only  a  little  in  advance  of  their  fellow  men,  and 
could  not  claim  to  be  the  light  of  the  world.  Jesus 
Christ  leaves  room  for  no  other,  past,  present  or  future. 
Not  much  more  than  thirty  years  old,  never  having  been 
two  hundred  miles  from  Jerusalem,  he  claimed  to  be  the 
light  of  the  world  for  all  the  ages. 

It  was  not  surprising  that  the  Pharisees,  who  did 
not  recognize  him  as  the  Son  of  God  should  say,  "Thou 


JESUS  TEACHING  IN  THE  TEMPLE       2-77 

bearest  witness  of  thyself,  thy  witness  is  not  true."  They 
could  have  objected  to  the  testimony  of  a  hundred  human 
witnesses  on  the  ground  of  incompetency.  Only  the 
omniscient  one  would  be  a  competent  witness  in  such  a 
case.  To  this  witness  Christ  appealed  as  he  declared 
his  own  omniscience,  saying,  "I  know  whence  I  came, 
and  whither  I  go."  Then,  telling  the  Pharisees  that  they 
did  not  know  whence  he  came  and  whither  he  went,  he 
added,  "I  am  not  alone,  but  I  and  the  Father  that  sent 
me.  I  am  he  that  beareth  witness  of  myself,  and  the 
Father  that  sent  me  beareth  witness  of  me."  He  called 
the  only  competent  witness  in  such  a  case,  and  that  is 
the  all  wise  God  revealing  himself  in  the  only  begotten 
Son.  Never  before  had  he  so  fully  proclaimed  himself 
as  one  with  the  Father,  the  Messenger  and  Revealer  of 
the  Father.  He  claimed  a  unique  place.  He  would  not 
be  classed  with  great  teachers,  but  above  them  all,  the 
light  of  the  world. 

The  Pharisees  met  his  claim  by  saying,  "Where  is 
thy  Father?"  They  could  not  have  explained  what 
they  meant  by  this  demand.  They  had  inadequate  con- 
ception of  the  infinite  God,  and  yet  they  knew  enough  to 
know  that  they  could  not  with  their  mortal  eyes  see  the 
Father.  They  knew  that  they  were  not  to  think  of  God 
as  the  heathen  did,  and  when  they  said  to  Jesus  Christ, 
"Where  is  thy  Father?"  they  were  less  humble  and  rev- 
erent, but  not  less  bewildered  than  Thomas  when  he, 
afterwards,  said,  "Show  us  the  Father  and  it  sufficeth 
us."  They  were  in  the  presence  of  divine  wisdom ;  they 
were  not  wilHng  to  see  in  Christ  all  that  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  see  of  the  Father,  and  Jesus  said  to  them,  "If 
ye  knew  me,  ye  would  know  my  Father  also." 

This  probably  ended  the  discussion  in  the  Treasury, 
and  the  Pharisees  permitted  Jesus  to  pass  out  to  one  of 


278  JESUS  CHRIST,  TIIE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  porches  of  the  temple  without  attempting  to  arrest 
him.  There  must  have  been  an  awe-inspiring  power  in 
his  presence  and  in  his  words  that  restrained  those  who 
had  in  their  hearts  to  kill  him  so  that  they  could  not 
touch  him  until  his  hour  was  fully  come  and  he  had  fin- 
ished his  work.  He  had  plainly  and  definitely  proclaimed 
himself  the  IMessiah,  the  great  light  to  lighten  the  gen- 
tiles, even  the  Light  of  the  world,  to  whom  John  the 
Baptist  had  borne  witness.  There  could  be  no  misunder- 
standing henceforth,  for  the  Jews  must  either  receive 
him  as  "the  bread  of  life,"  "the  living  water,"  and  "the 
light  of  the  world,"  or  they  must  reject  him. 

When  Jesus  resumed  his  discourse,  probably  on  one 
of  the  porches  of  the  Temple,  he  said  again,  "I  go  away, 
and  ye  shall  seek  me,  and  ye  shall  die  in  your  sins; 
whither  I  go,  ye  cannot  come."  To  these  perplexing 
words  the  Jews  now  responded  by  saying,  "Will  he  kill 
himself,  that  he  saith  Whither  I  go  ye  cannot  come?" 

They  had  such  false  and  inadequate  views  of  who  their 
Messiah  should  be,  and  of  what  he  should  do,  that  they 
could  not  comprehend  the  meaning  of  Christ's  words ; 
and,  while  they  were  questioning  as  to  his  meaning,  he 
explained  the  cause  of  their  confusion  by  saying,  "Ye  are 
from  beneath;  I  am  from  above;  ye  are  of  this  world; 
I  am  not  of  this  world." 

The  Jews  could  not  rise  above  the  sensual  and  the 
present ;  they  could  not  believe  in  a  spiritual  kingdom 
of  God,  and,  therefore,  could  not  believe  in  and  under- 
stand Jesus  Christ,  whose  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world. 
Some  of  them,  possibly  all  of  them,  at  times,  felt  that 
there  was  more  in  Christ  s  words  than  they  could  com- 
prehend, and  they  said  to  him  in  real  perplexity,  "Who 
art  thou?"  But  his  answer  brought  no  real  light  to  their 
obscured  vision.     They  could  not  realize  that  he  spoke 


JESUS  TEACHING  IN  THE  TEMPLE       279 

to  them  of  the  Father;  nevertheless,  when  he  foretold 
his  own  death,  saying,  "When  ye  have  lifted  up  the  Son 
of  man,  then  shall  ye  know  that  I  am  he  and  that  I  do 
nothing  of  myself,"  many  seemed  conscious  of  the  pres- 
ence of  the  invisible  God,  and  seemed  to  catch  such 
glimpses  of  the  unseen  and  eternal  world  as  led  them 
to  believe  on  him.  For  a  moment  they  seemed  to  exer- 
cise real  faith  and  experience  the  power  that  afterwards 
should  go  forth  from  an  uplifted  Savior.  To  these  wav- 
ering ones,  who  seemed  not  far  from  the  kingdom,  to 
the  Jews  that  believed  on  him  and  seemed  to  be  his  dis- 
ciples, Jesus  said,  "If  ye  abide  in  my  word,  then  are  ye 
truly  my  disciples ;  and  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free." 

These  words,  that  seemed  designed  and  adapted  to 
confirm  the  faith  of  the  wavering,  were  the  tests  of 
their  faith,  and  the  wind  that  drove  some  of  them  away. 
They  were  ofifended  by  the  promise  that  they  should  be 
made  free,  and  said,  "We  be  Abraham's  seed,  and  were 
never  in  bondage  to  any  man ;  how  sayest  thou,  ye  shall 
be  made  free?"  Their  pride  was  ofifended.  They  prob- 
ably did  not  mean  to  assert  what  was  so  manifestly  false 
when  they  said  that  they  were  never  in  bondage  to  any 
man.  They  did  not  recognize  their  political  bondage  as 
interfering  with  the  real  individual  liberty  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Abraham.  They  might  be  under  the  dominion 
of  a  heathen  government,  but  their  consciences  were 
not  enslaved.  Our  Lord  seemed  to  attach  this  meaning 
to  their  claim  of  freedom,  and  said  in  reply,  "Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  every  one  that  committeth  sin  is 
the  bond  servant  of  sin." 

He  met  them  on  their  own  ground.  He  had  not  been 
thinking  of  their  bondage  to  the  Romans,  and  had  not 
been  promising  them  deliverance  from  the  Roman  yoke 


28o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

when  he  had  offered  them  freedom.  He  had  been  look- 
ing at  their  real  bondage,  as  the  slaves  of  sin  and  the 
servants  of  the  evil  one,  and  he  had  offered  them  free- 
dom from  this  real  slavery,  if  they  would  continue  in  his 
word.  He  saw  them  in  real  slavery,  and  he  added,  "If, 
therefore,  the  Son  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free 
indeed."  Then  he  proceeded  to  point  out  their  sin  and 
refute  their  claim  to  be  in  the  real  sense  the  children  of 
Abraham.  He  said,  "I  know  that  ye  are  Abraham's  seed, 
yet  ye  seek  to  kill  me,  because  my  word  hath  not  free 
course  in  you.  I  speak  the  things  which  I  have  seen  with 
my  Father;  and  ye  also  do  the  things  which  ye  have 
heard  from  your  father." 

Whey  they  had  asserted  that  they  were  free,  they  had 
ignored  the  fact  that  they  were  in  national  subjection  to 
Rome,  and  our  Lord  proceeded  to  talk  with  them  of  this 
higher  liberty.  They  claimed  to  be  Abraham's  seed,  but 
he  showed  that  they  were  only  in  a  natural,  not  in  the 
real  sense,  Abraham's  seed;  that  God  was  his  Father 
and  that  they  had  another  father  whose  spirit  they 
manifested  and  whose  works  they  did.  When  they  re- 
peated the  claim  to  be  Abraham's  seed,  Jesus  said,  "If 
ye  were  Abraham's  children,  ye  would  do  the  works  of 
Abraham;  but  now  ye  seek  to  kill  me,  a  man  that  told 
you  the  truth,  which  I  heard  from  God;  this  did  not 
Abraham.     Ye  do  the  works  of  your  father." 

To  these  words  of  Jesus,  that  took  them  back  further 
than  Abraham,  the  Jews  replied,  saying,  "We  were  not 
born  of  fornication ;  we  have  one  Father,  God."  But 
Christ  met  this  claim  with  the  unanswerable  argument, 
"If  God  were  your  Father  you  would  love  me;  for  I 
came  forth  and  am  come  from  God,"  and  he  added,  "Ye 
are  of  your  father  the  devil,  and  the  lusts  of  your  father 
it  is  your  will  to  do.    He  was  a  murderer  in  the  begin- 


JESUS  TEACHING  IN  THE  TEMPLE       281 

ning  and  stood  not  in  the  truth,  because  there  is  no  truth 
in  him.  When  he  speaketh  a  He,  he  speaketh  of  his  own 
for  he  is  a  liar  and  the  father  thereof.  Because  I  say  the 
truth  ye  beHeve  me  not.  Which  of  you  convicteth  me 
of  sin?  If  I  say  the  truth,  why  do  ye  not  believe  me? 
He  that  is  of  God  heareth  the  words  of  God;  for  this 
cause  ye  hear  them  not,  because  ye  are  not  of  God." 

This  discussion  that  began  with  an  address  to  those 
who  beheved  on  him,  had  rapidly  developed  into  open 
rupture  and  irreconcilable  conflict.  It  was  not  merely 
a  conflict  between  men;  it  was  a  conflict  of  light  with 
darkness,  of  truth  with  falsehood,  of  God  with  the  evil 
one.  In  this  discussion  Jesus  revealed  the  two  opposing 
powers,  and  proclaimed  himself  the  representative  of 
truth  and  of  God  the  Father,  while  his  enemies  were  in 
reality  the  representatives  of  falsehood,  murder  and  the 
devil.  He  declared  that  the  Jews  did  not  receive  his 
message  and  love  him  because  they  were  filled  with  the 
spirit  of  enmity  against  God  and  truth. 

To  the  charge  that  they  were  the  enemies  of  God  and 
the  children  of  the  devil,  the  Jews  replied  by  accusing 
Jesus  of  being  a  Samaritan  and  having  a  demon.  They 
certainly  did  not  mean  to  assert  that  he  was  really  a 
Samaritan  in  nationality;  for  they  had  called  him  a 
Galilean.  The  epithet,  Samaritan,  was  about  the  equiv- 
alent of  outcast,  alien,  heretic;  and,  followed  by  the 
declaration  that  he  had  a  demon,  was  equivalent  to  say- 
ing that  Jesus  was  the  representative  of  falsehood  and 
the  evil  one,  and  that  he  was  not  a  true  child  of  Abra- 
ham— that  he  was  what  he  had  accused  them  of  being. 
Our  Lord  patiently  denied  their  charge,  declaring  that 
he  honoured  the  Father,  and  added,  "If  a  man  keep  my 
words,  he  shall  never  see  death."  To  this  new  and  won- 
drous claim  they  replied,  "Now  we  know  that  thou  hast 


282  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

a  demon.  Abraham  is  dead,  and  the  prophets ;  and 
thou  sayest,  If  a  man  keep  my  words  he  shall  never  taste 
of  death.  Art  thou  greater  than  our  father  Abraham 
. , .  .Whom  makest  thou  thyself?" 

Instead  of  giving  a  direct  answer  to  this  question,  that 
he  had  already  answered  more  than  once,  Jesus  replied, 
"If  I  glorify  myself  my  glory  is  nothing;  it  is  my  Father 
that  glorifieth  me,  of  whom  ye  say  that  he  is  your  God, 
and  ye  have  not  known  him;  but  I  know  him,  and  if  I 
should  say,  I  know  him  not,  I  shall  be  like  unto  you,  a 
liar;  but  I  know  him  and  keep  his  word.  Your  father 
Abraham  rejoiced  to  see  my  day,  and  he  saw  it,  and 
was  glad." 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  Jews  should  neaily  lose 
sight  of  the  charge  made  against  them  in  this  new  claim 
that  Abraham,  their  natural  father,  had  seen  Jesus 
Christ's  day.  Abraham  had  lived  about  twenty  cen- 
turies before  Jesus  was  born,  and  yet  Jesus  declared 
that  Abraham,  their  great  and  remote  ancestor,  had  seen 
his  day.  In  their  surprise  they  could  only  say,  "Thou  are 
not  yet  fifty  years  old,  and  hast  thou  seen  Abraham?" 
To  this  question  Jesus  replied  by  making  a  still  more 
astounding  claim,  as  he  said,  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  before  Abraham  was  /  am."  Knowing,  as  they 
did,  the  wondrous  revelation  of  God  to  Moses  at  Mt. 
Sinai,  as  the  /  AM,  these  Jews  could  hardly  fail  to  see 
the  meaning  of  our  Lord's  words.  They  saw  a  claim 
to  divine,  eternal  pre-existence,  and,  as  they  heard  this 
claim,  which,  to  their  unbelieving  minds,  seemed  blas- 
phemy, they  took  up  stones  to  stone  him,  but  Jesus  hid 
liimself  and  went  out  of  the  temple. 


XLVI 
HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND 

John  9:25.    "One  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas  I  was  blind  now 
I  see." 

(John  9:  i-io:  2;   Luke  11 :  1-13.) 

IN  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  by  John  we  have 
an  account  of  Christ's  claiming  divine  attributes, 
and  of  the  consequent  outburst  of  Jewish  wrath 
from  which  he  escaped  by  hiding  himself  or  by  passing 
unobserved  through  the  excited  and  angry  multitude. 
Whether  the  healing  of  the  blind  man,  and  the  discus- 
sion recorded  in  the  ninth  and  the  first  part  of  the  tenth 
chapters  took  place  very  soon  afterwards  may  be  ques- 
tioned; they  certainly  did  not  occur  the  same  day,  for 
the  octave  of  the  feast  of  tabernacles  was  not  the  Sab- 
bath, and  the  blind  man  was  healed  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
Taking  into  consideration  all  the  evident  facts,  it  may 
be  inferred,  with  a  good  degree  of  confidence,  that  the 
discussion  in  the  treasury  and  in  the  porch  of  the  tem- 
ple, recorded  John  8,  took  place  on  Friday  afternoon, 
and  that  Jesus  spent  the  night  with  his  disciples  outside 
the  city,  and  that  he  returned  to  the  temple  on  Sabbath 
morning.  If  this  inference  be  correct,  it  is  possible  that 
the  event  recorded  Luke  11 :  1-13,  may  have  occurred  on 
the  night  that  intervened  between  the  teaching  in  the 
treasury  and  the  healing  of  the  man  born  blind. 

On  the  evening  of  the  eighth  day  of  the  feast  Jesus 
passed  quickly  and  quietly  from  the  temple  and  out  of 

283 


284  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  city  gate  before  sunset.  Instead  of  going  to  the 
home  in  Bethany,  it  is  probable  that  he  sought  soHtude, 
that  he  might  commune  with  the  Father.  This  would 
correspond  with  the  circumstances  described  by  Luke,  as 
he  says,  "And  it  came  to  pass  as  he  was  praying  in  a  cer- 
tain place,  that,  when  he  had  ceased,  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples said  unto  him,  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  even  as  John 
also  taught  his  disciples."  The  disciples  probably  came 
to  him  in  the  solitude  of  Olivet  or  elsewhere,  and  were 
specially  impressed  by  the  helpfulness  of  his  prayer. 
He  had  been  rejected,  and  his  enem.ies,  with  ever-in- 
creasing malice,  were  seeking  his  destruction ;  he  needed 
a  friend  to  comfort,  protect  and  help  him.  When  his 
disciples  heard  him  pray  they  realized  that  he  had  such 
a  Friend,  and  hence  their  request,  "Lord,  teach  us  to 
pray." 

The  prayer  given  here  does  not  differ  in  any  essential 
from  the  form  given  by  Matthew  as  a  part  of  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  though  it  is  less  formal  and  seems  pe- 
culiarly adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  the  disciples  at 
this  particular  time.  They  had  seen  John  the  Baptist 
taken  away  from  his  disciples,  and  knew  their  need  to  be 
able  to  pray.  They  had  heard  the  suggestion  that  the 
Bridegroom,  their  own  Master,  would  be  taken  from 
them,  and  that  they  would  need  a  Comforter ;  they  felt, 
no  doubt,  at  this  particular  time,  the  premonition  of  com- 
ing sorrows.  As  Jesus  answered  their  felt  and  expressed 
need,  he,  first  of  all,  led  them  to  recognize  God  as  their 
Father.  He  then  showed  them  that  their  first  desire 
should  be  that  their  Father's  name  should  be  held  in 
reverence,  and  that  his  kingdom  should  be  established. 
He  had  come,  not  to  do  his  own  will,  nor  to  seek  his 
own  glory,  but  to  do  the  will  and  seek  the  glory  of  the 
Father.     As  they  prayed  they  were  to  have  the  same 


HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND        285 

aims.  Their  service  of  God  would  lead  to  their  rejec- 
tion by  men ;  it  would  stir  up  the  wrath  of  men  as  that 
wrath  had  been  stirred  up  against  their  Master;  but, 
when  they  prayed,  they  must  seek  God's  honor  and  God's 
kingdom. 

Having  given  his  disciples  fitting  words  with  which 
to  speak  to  God,  Jesus  encouraged  them,  not  only  to 
pray,  but  to  be  importunate  in  prayer,  saying,  "Which 
of  you  shall  have  a  friend  and  shall  go  unto  him  at  mid- 
night, and  say  to  him.  Friend,  lend  me  three  loaves ;  for 
a  friend  of  mine  is  come  to  me  from  a  journey,  and  I 
have  nothing  to  set  before  him;  and  he  from  within 
shall  answer  and  say,  Trouble  me  not;  the  door  is  now 
shut,  and  my  children  are  with  me  in  bed;  I  cannot 
arise  and  give  thee.  I  say  unto  you,  though  he  will  not 
rise  and  give  him  because  he  is  his  friend,  yet  because  of 
his  importunity  he  will  arise  and  give  him  as  many  as 
he  needeth." 

To  this  appeal  to  their  knowledge  of  how  importunacy 
moves  men,  Jesus  added  the  promise,  "Ask  and  it  shall 
be  given  you ;  seek,  and  ye  shall  find ;  knock,  and  it  shall 
be  opened  unto  you.  For  every  one  that  asketh  receiv- 
eth ;  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth,  and  to  him  that  knock- 
eth  it  shall  be  opened."  Then,  as  though  this  threefold 
and  repeated  promise  were  not  sufficient,  Jesus  again 
impressed  his  disciples  with  the  great  and  encouraging 
fact  that  God  was  their  Father,  and  that  he  was  more 
willing  to  hear  and  grant  their  requests  than  earthly 
parents  were  to  give  good  gifts  unto  their  children.  Both 
by  the  words  of  prayer  and  by  the  illustrations  used, 
Jesus  encouraged,  not  only  the  apostles,  but  all  men  to 
recognize  God  as  the  loving  heavenly  Father.  He  after- 
wards taught  his  disciples  to  ask  the  Father  in  his  name ; 
but  this  fact  does  not  detract  in  the  least  from  the  full- 


286  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ness  of  this  form  of  prayer  for  Christian  men  in  all  ages. 
Only  through  Christ  do  men  really  know  God  as  Father, 
and  when  we  come  to  him  in  Christ  the  highest  and  hol- 
iest form  of  address  is,  "Our  Father,  who  art  in  Heaven. 
Hallowed  be  thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come."  This  is 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  is  a  fitting  form  for  Christian 
prayer.  It  includes  all  that  is  expressed  by  the  words, 
"in  the  name  of  Christ." 

On  Sabbath  morning  Jesus  healed  a  man  that  was 
born  blind.  This  probably  occurred  as  he,  with  his  dis- 
ciples, was  entering  the  temple  on  the  morning  of  the 
Sabbath  immediately  after  the  close  of  the  feast  of  taber- 
nacles. John's  account  of  this  event  indicates  that  this 
blind  man  was  accustomed  to  solicit  alms  at  a  gate  of 
the  temple,  and  that  he  would  be  there  on  Sabbath  morn- 
ing, not  to  ask  alms,  but  because  it  was  the  place  where 
he  was  wont  to  spend  his  days.  This  blind  man's  history 
seemed  to  be  known  to  the  disciples,  for  they  said  to  the 
Master,  "Who  did  sin,  this  man,  or  his  parents,  that  he 
should  be  born  blind?" 

This  was  a  thoroughly  Jewish  question.  Without  suf- 
ficient reason  for  so  doing  they  were  accustomed  to 
attribute  peculiar  suffering  to  particular  sins.  It  was 
a  common  belief  that  the  merits  and  demerits  of  parents 
descended  to  their  children.  This  man's  unhappy  con- 
dition suggested  a  curious,  speculative  question,  and 
the  disciples  said,  "Who  did  sin  that  this  man  should 
be  born  blind?" 

Both  the  sacred  Scriptures  and  the  operations  of  nat- 
ural law  affirm  that  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  are 
visited  upon  their  children,  that  when  "the  fathers  eat 
sour  grapes,  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge,"  that 
certain  specific  sins  of  parents  do  result  in  certain  spe- 
cific diseases  in  their  children;    and  men  should  seek 


HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND        2^7 

all  possible  knowledge  of  this  great  mystery  by  which 
the  free  will  of  the  parent,  to  so  great  an  extent,  de- 
termines the  destiny  of  his  children.  But  the  answer  of 
our  Lord  to  the  question  of  his  disciples  shows  that  they 
had  false  views  of  the  divine  arrangement,  and  misin- 
terpreted the  sovereign  will  of  God  as  it  may  be  seen  in 
the  laws  of  heredity.  The  disciples  wished  to  know  the 
source  or  origin  of  this  blind  man's  calamity,  and  Christ 
told  them  the  purpose  and  meaning  of  it,  as  it  entered 
into  and  formed  a  part  of  God's  all-comprehensive  plan, 
when  he  said,  "Neither  did  this  man  sin,  nor  his  parents, 
but  that  the  works  of  God  should  be  made  manifest  in 
him." 

This  does  not  explain  the  great  mystery  of  suffering, 
but  it  does  indicate  the  moral  purpose  that  suffering  may 
serve,  and  it  does  condemn  the  tendency  to  attribute  pe- 
culiar individual  suffering  to  a  special  judgment  of  God 
on  account  of  particular  sin.  It  does  not  contradict  any 
facts  concerning  the  divine  law  of  heredity,  but  it  throws 
light  on  the  divine  purpose  in  the  outworking  of  this 
divine  law. 

In  this  unfortunate  man  Jesus  saw  an  opportunity 
to  do  the  work  of  God  who  sent  him,  and  he  said,  "I 
must  work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me  while  it  is  day ; 
the  night  cometh  when  no  man  can  work.  When  I  am  in 
the  world,  I  am  the  Light  of  the  world."  Then  he  spat 
on  the  ground,  and,  having  made  an  ointment,  anointed 
the  blind  man's  eyes  and  directed  him  to  go  and  wash 
in  the  pool  of  Siloam.  The  man  obeyed  and  was  healed, 
and  returned  seeing. 

Why  our  Lord  made  use  of  any  external  means  in  per- 
forming this  great  miracle  is  not  revealed.  He  could 
have  spoken  the  words  of  power  without  the  use  of 
any  outward  means,  and,  if  he  had  done  so,  it  would 


288  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

not  have  been  so  easy  for  his  enemies  to  have  convicted 
him  of  violating  their  laws  of  the  Sabbath. 

In  the  record  of  this  event  nothing  is  said  of  the 
blind  man's  asking  or  expecting  to  be  healed.  He  did 
not  even  know  who  had  healed  him.  As  our  Lord  was 
passing  by  he  saw  the  blind  man  and  his  disciples  called 
his  attention  to  him  by  asking  what  seemed  a  curious 
theological  question.  Nevertheless,  there  was  evidence 
of  a  certain  kind  of  faith  in  his  obedience  as  he  went 
and  washed  in  the  waters  of  Siloam.  By  his  contact 
with  the  Saviour  of  lost  men  this  man,  who  had  by  many 
been  regarded  as  a  monument  of  divine  displeasure,  be- 
came a  special  medium  for  the  manifestation  of  God's 
sovereign   love. 

This  miracle  produced  intense  excitement  in  the 
neighbourhood  where  this  man  had  spent  more  than  forty 
years,  and  had  been  known  as  one  born  blind.  He  had 
as  a  birthright  the  preeminence  that  comes  to  the  pe- 
culiarly unfortunate.  In  youth  iie  had  been  known  as 
"the  blind  boy,"  and  he  had  grown  into  "the  blind  man" 
and  now,  that  he  has  been  suddenly  and  perfectly  healed, 
he  was  the  wonder  of  the  community  and  the  centre  of 
attraction.  The  evangelist  leaves  his  readers  to  fill  out 
the  picture  as  he  tells  in  the  simplest  language  the  story 
of  what  followed  the  healing.  First  there  was  the  ques- 
tioning by  his  neighbours,  "Is  not  this  he  that  sat  and 
begged  ?"  Some  affirmed  while  others  said  it  was  only  a 
case  of  strong  resemblance.  When  the  man  himself  was 
questioned,  he  answered,  "I  am  he."  Then  he  told  the 
story  of  his  healing  as  he  said,  "The  man  that  is  called 
Jesus  made  a  clay  and  anointed  my  eyes  and  said  unto 
me.  Go  to  Siloam  and  wash ;  so  I  went  away  and  washed 
and  received  my  sight."  When  he  was  asked  where  his 
benefactor  was,  he  could  not  tell. 


HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BUND        289 

When  the  neighbours  and  others  saw  what  had  been 
done,  they  brought  the  man  to  the  Pharisees,  who  asked 
him  how  he  had  been  healed  and  they  received  the  same 
answer.  This  probably  does  not  mean  that  he  was 
brought  before  any  regularly  constituted  assembly  of 
the  Pharisees,  but  that  he  was  brought  to  the  Pharisees 
at  Jerusalem  who  were  by  common  consent  recognized  as 
leaders.  These  leaders  were  divided  in  their  opinion  as 
to  the  great  Physician.  Some  of  them  said,  "This  man  is 
not  from  God,  because  he  keepeth  not  the  Sabbath ;" 
but  others  said,  "How  can  a  man  that  is  a  sinner  do  such 
signs  ?" 

In  their  perplexity  they  recalled  the  man,  and  asked 
his  opinion  of  Jesus  who  had  healed  him.  The  man 
answered  promptly,  "He  is  a  prophet." 

Instead  of  accepting  this  explanation,  the  Jewish  lead- 
ers began  to  question  the  man's  report  of  his  being 
healed.  They  could  not  deny  that  he  now  saw,  but 
they  doubted  whether  he  had  been  born  blind.  They 
were  not  willing  to  admit  that  Jesus  had  exhibited  the 
credentials  of  the  Messiah  by  opening  the  eyes  of  a  man 
born  blind,  and  they  would  not  admit  that  this  man  had 
really  been  blind  from  birth  until  they  had  called  his 
parents  and  asked  them.  The  parents  had  not  witnessed 
the  healing,  and  they  knew  that,  either  by  the  act  of  some 
regularly  constituted  body  or  by  common  consent 
amongst  the  Jewish  leaders,  it  had  been  decided  that  if 
any  one  should  recognize  Jesus  as  the  Christ  he  should 
be  unchurched,  excommunicated  or  excluded  from  the 
synagogue,  and  they  answered  in  such  a  way  as  to  not 
incur  this  greatly  dreaded  excommunication.  They  said, 
"We  know  that  this  is  our  son,  and  that  he  was  born 
blind;  but  how  he  now  seeth,  we  know  not;  ask  him;  he 
is  of  age;   he  shall  speak  for  himself." 


290  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

This  left  no  reasonable  room  for  doubt ;  for  they  had 
already  asked  the  man  twice  and  had  received  the  same 
answer,  and  they  had  the  evidence  of  their  own  eyes  that 
the  man  now  saw — that  he  had  really  been  healed.  Nev- 
ertheless, they  called  the  man  again,  and,  by  whatsoever 
authority  they  possessed  as  recognized  teachers  of  re- 
ligion, they  said,  "Give  glory  to  God ;  we  know  that  this 
man  is  a  sinner."  They  could  not  deny  that  gratitude 
and  glory  were  due  to  some  one,  but  would  exclude  Jesus 
from  being  recognized  as  the  servant  of  God. 

To  this  arrogant  claim  of  superior  knowledge  in  which 
they  declared  Jesus  Christ  a  sinner,  the  healed  man  an- 
swered in  such  a  way  as  to  render  ridiculous  these  Phar- 
isaic pretensions,  saying,  "Whether  he  be  a  sinner  I 
know  not ;  one  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas  I  was  blind, 
now  I  see." 

The  Pharisees  could  not  fail  to  see  that  their  own 
position  was  not  only  weak,  but  i  tterly  foolish,  and  they 
were  not  willing  to  let  the  matter  rest  here,  so  they 
said  again  to  the  man,  "What  did  he  to  thee?" 

This  question  was  a  virtual  acknowledgment  of  de- 
feat. They  had  spoken  the  final  word,  when  they  said, 
"We  know  that  this  man  is  a  sinner,"  but  they  opened 
the  subject  again  by  asking  what  Jesus  did.  The  man 
answered  with  words  and  accents  of  impatience,  saying, 
"I  told  you  even  now,  and  ye  did  not  hear;  wherefore 
would  ye  hear  it  again?  Would  ye  also  become  his  dis- 
ciples ?" 

To  this  the  Jews  responded  with  revilings  and  claims 
of  superiority  that  could  only  serve  as  an  inadequate 
cover  for  evident  defeat,  when  they  said,  "Thou  art  his 
disciple;  but  we  are  disciples  of  Moses.  We  know  that 
God  hath  spoken  by  Moses ;  but  as  for  this  man,  we 
know  not  whence  he  is."    But  again  they  were  exposed 


HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND         291 

to  ridicule,  when  the  man  repHed,  "Why,  herein  is  the 
marvel,  that  ye  know  not  whence  he  is;  and  yet  he 
opened  mine  eyes.  We  know  that  God  heareth  not  sin- 
ners ;  but  if  any  man  be  a  worshipper  of  God,  and  do 
his  will,  him  he  heareth.  Since  the  world  began  it  was 
never  heard  that  any  one  opened  the  eyes  of  a  man  born 
blind.  If  this  man  were  not  from  God,  he  could  do 
nothing." 

To  this  the  Jews  could  only  answer  by  reviling,  and, 
after  saying,  "Thou  wast  altogether  born  in  sin,  and 
dost  thou  teach  us,"  they  cast  him  out.  This  was  the 
least  form  of  excommunication,  and  three  persons  or 
even  one  might  pronounce  such  a  sentence.  It  is  probable 
that  in  this  case  it  was  the  act  of  a  few  who  had  been 
carrying  on  this  investigation  concerning  the  healing 
of  this  blind  man,  and  it  would  exclude  the  healed  man 
from  the  synagogue  for  the  period  of  thirty  days  and 
prepare  the  way  for  the  greater  excommunication.  It 
was  the  answer  of  intolerance  and  hatred  to  the  protest 
of  individual  conscience  and  individual  intelligence. 

When  Jesus  heard  that  the  man  had  been  "cast  out," 
he  found  him,  and  said,  "Dost  thou  believe  on  the  Son 
of  God?"  and,  when  the  man  answered,  "Who  is  he, 
Lord,  that  I  may  believe  on  him?"  Jesus  said,  "Thou 
hast  both  seen  him,  and  he  it  is  that  speaketh  with  thee." 
Then  this  man,  who  had  with  great  boldness  and  direct- 
ness withstood  and  exposed  the  pretensions  of  the  Phar- 
isees, answered  Jesus  with  profound  humility,  saying, 
"Lord,  I  believe,"  and  he  worshipped  his  benefactor.  To 
the  blind  beggar,  who,  for  more  than  forty  years  had 
been  an  object  of  pity,  a  great  light  had  come.  In  com- 
parison with  him  the  Jewish  rulers  were  the  really  blind, 
and  Jesus  said,  "For  judgment  came  I  into  this  world 
that  they  which  see  not  may  see,  and  that  they  which 


292  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

see  may  become  blind."  The  Pharisees  who  were  pres- 
ent and  heard  his  words,  said,  "Are  we  also  blind?" 
Jesus  answered,  "If  ye  were  blind,  ye  would  have  no 
sin ;  but  now  ye  say,  We  see ;  therefore  your  sin  remain- 
eth." 

This  controversy  about  the  healing  of  the  blind  man 
seemed  to  open  the  way  for  our  Lord's  discourse  in 
which  he  contrasts  true  with  false  religious  teachers, 
and,  by  so  doing,  shows  the  essential  difference  between 
true  and  false  religions.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees 
were  the  recognized  religious  teachers  of  the  Jews.  They 
were  not  accredited  prophets,  having  special  revelation 
from  God,  but  they  sat  in  Moses'  seat,  and  they  were 
recognized  as  interpreters  of  the  sacred  Scriptures. 
When  Jesus  Christ  came,  Nicodemus  and  others  rec- 
ognized him  as  a  "Teacher  come  from  God,"  and,  if  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees  would  retain  their  places  as  re- 
ligious teachers,  they  must  make  some  arrangement  by 
which  Jesus  Christ  would  be  associated  with  them  and 
recognized  as  one  of  them.  It  was  to  their  interest,  and 
it  seemed  to  be  to  his  interest,  that  they  should  have  a 
mutual  understanding  and  unite  their  forces.  When 
Jesus  began  his  public  ministry  he  did  not  enter  the 
schools  of  these  religious  leaders,  and  they  were  jealous 
of  him,  regarding  him  as  a  rival  rather  than  an  ally.  His 
popularity  as  a  teacher  seemed  to  detract  from  their 
preeminence  and  threaten  their  overthrow ;  but  his 
teaching  was  so  essentially  different  from  theirs  that 
they  could  not  approve  him  without  condemning  them- 
selves. By  the  instinct  of  self  preservation  they  were 
moved  to  destroy  him,  and,  when  they  could  not  deny 
that  he  had  healed  this  blind  man,  they  used  their  only 
argument  that  would  have  influence  with  the  people; 


HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BLIND         293 

they  declared  that  he  was  a  sinner  because  he  had  done 
this  work  of  healing  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

Jesus  accepted  the  conflict  that  had  been  forced  upon 
him  and  gave  to  the  people  the  parable  of  the  true  and 
the  false  shepherds,  in  which  he  showed  the  essential 
difference  between  true  and  false  religious  teachers.  He 
noticed  two  points  of  striking  contrast;  first,  the  good 
shepherd  enters  the  sheepfold  by  the  door,  but  the  thief 
and  robber  climbeth  up  some  other  way ;  second,  the 
sheep  hear  the  voice  of  the  shepherd  and  he  calls  them 
by  name,  leading  them  out,  but  the  sheep  will  not  hear 
the  voice  nor  follow  a  stranger,  but  will  flee  from  him. 

The  meaning  of  this  parable  as  applied  to  religious 
teachers  seems  to  us  plain  and  easily  understood.  It 
indicates  that  the  true  religious  teacher  is  called  of  God, 
knows  the  people  of  God,  and  is  known  of  them;  but 
the  Jews  to  whom  Jesus  spoke  did  not  understand  him, 
and  he  changed  the  figure,  making  it  more  personal. 
What  he  had  said  proved  him  the  good  Shepherd  if 
they  would  contrast  his  treatment  of  the  blind  man  with 
the  action  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees ;  but  he  changed 
the  figure  as  he  said,  "I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep.  All 
that  came  before  me  are  thieves  and  robbers;  but  the 
sheep  did  not  hear  them.  I  am  the  door ;  by  me  if  any 
man  enter  in,  he  shall  be  saved  and  shall  go  in  and  go 
out,  and  shall  find  pasture." 

If  the  Jews  did  not  understand  the  parable  of  the 
good  and  bad  shepherds  they  would  hardly  be  able  to 
comprehend  the  full  meaning  of  this  personal  claim,  or 
of  Christ's  declaration  that  all  who  came  before  him 
were  thieves  and  robbers.  They  might  think  of  him 
as  a  shepherd,  but  in  what  sense  was  he  "the  door  of 
the  sheep?"  and  who  were  meant  when  he  said  that  all 
who  came  before  him  were  thieves  and  robbers  ? 


294  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

These  words  could  only  be  understood  by  those  who 
recognized  Jesus  as  the  Son  of  God,  the  only  Mediator 
between  God  and  men,  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life. 
They  carry  us  beyond  scribes  and  Pharisees,  beyond  all 
merely  human  teachers,  good  or  bad,  and  contrast  Jesus 
Christ  with  the  great  adversary  of  men.  When  he  said, 
"All  that  came  before  me  are  thieves  and  robbers,"  he 
certainly  did  not  refer  to  Old  Testament  prophets  who 
spake  by  his  spirit ;  not  did  he  refer  primarily  to  the 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  but  to  Satan,  the  arch  enemy,  who 
first  seduced  mankind,  and  to  the  human  teachers  in  all 
ages  who  have  been  actuated  by  Satan's  spirit.  All 
who  sought  to  enslave  and  destroy  men  by  alienating 
them  from  God  and  leading  them  into  any  form  of  idol- 
atry, gross  or  refined,  were  thieves  and  robbers.  This 
included  the  evil  one  and  all  his  agents.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  Jesus  Christ  proclaimed  himself  "the  door 
of  the  sheep,"  he  assumed  the  place  of  Mediator  between 
God  the  Father  and  sinful  men — he  claimed  to  be  the 
unique  reconciler  of  God  to  men,  the  door  of  entrance 
to  God's  fold  and  favor. 

If  Jesus  had  ended  his  discourse  when  he  proclaimed 
himself  the  door,  and  declared  that  all  who  came  before 
him  were  thieves  and  robbers,  his  meaning  might  have 
been  obscure,  but  he  went  on  to  contrast  the  spirit  of 
Satan  and  his  agents  with  his  own  spirit,  as  he  said,  "The 
thief  Cometh  not  but  that  he  may  steal,  and  kill  and 
destroy;  I  came  that  they  may  have  life,  and  may  have 
it  abundantly ;  I  am  the  good  shepherd ;  the  good  shep- 
herd layeth  down  his  life  for  the  sheep." 

Here  is  the  great  essential  difference  between  true  and 
false  religious  teachers  and  between  true  and  false  re- 
ligions. False  religions  and  false  religious  teachers 
would  enslave  and  destroy  men  for  selfish  ends;    true 


HEALING  THE  MAN  BORN  BUND        295 

religion  and  true  religious  teachers  aim  to  give  men  more 
abundant  life.  To  comprehend  the  full  meaning  of 
these  words  is  to  comprehend  the  fall  of  man  through 
temptation  by  Satan,  and  the  redemption  of  the  world 
through  Jesus  the  Christ,  as  they  are  revealed  in  the 
Bible. 

These  words  supply  a  crucial  test  of  religion  and 
religious  teachers  in  every  age.  True  religion  is  de- 
signed and  adapted  to  elevate,  enlarge  and  beautify 
human  life ;  while  false  religions  and  false  religious 
teachers  would  enslave  and  destroy  men.  The  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ  therefore  offers  to  men  broad,  deep, 
eternal  life  as  the  sons  of  God.  To  heal  this  blind  man 
Jesus  had  only  needed  to  anoint  his  eyes  and  send  him 
to  wash  in  Siloam,  but  this  was  only  an  incident  in  the 
great  mission  that  had  brought  him  into  the  world.  In 
order  to  give  eternal  life  to  his  people,  he  must  lay 
down  his  own  life  and  must  take  it  again.  This  he  de- 
clared he  had  the  power  to  do,  and  this  was  the  great 
purpose  for  which  the  Father  had  sent  him  into  the 
world.  There  is  a  sense  in  which  every  man  has  power 
to  lay  down  his  life  and  has  power  to  take  it  again.  He 
saves  by  losing. 

This  great  and  profound  discourse  of  Jesus  created 
a  division  amongst  the  Jews,  and  some  said,  "He  hath 
a  demon,  and  is  mad,  why  hear  ye  him?"  Others  said, 
"These  are  not  the  sayings  of  one  possessed  of  a  demon. 
Can  a  demon  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind?"  Only  the 
sheep  can  hear  the  voice  of  the  true  shepherd,  but  even 
unbelievers  in  this  age  can  hardly  read  these  words  of 
Jesus  without  being  constrained  to  say,  "Never  man 
spake  like  this  man," 


XLVII 

DISCOURSE     CONCERNING     BLASPHEMY 
AGAINST  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

Mat.  12:31.  "Therefore  I  say  unto  you  every  sin  and  blas- 
phemy shall  be  forgiven  unto  men ;  but  blasphemy  against  the 
Spirit  shall  not  be  forgiven." 

(Mat.  12:  22-45;    Mark  3:20-30;    Luke  11 :  14-36.) 

THE  feast  of  tabernacles  was  in  the  latter  part  of 
September  and  the  feast  of  dedication  was  in  De- 
cember. Where  Jesus  spent  the  two  or  three 
intervening  months  is  not  known.  Farrar  assumes  that 
he  went  back  to  Galilee  to  complete  his  ministry  there, 
while  Edersheim  assumes  that  he  went  directly  from 
the  feast  of  tabernacles  to  Perasa  and  that  he  stayed  in 
Persea  until  the  feast  of  dedication  when  he  came  to 
Jerusalem  for  a  few  days  and  then  returned  to  Peraea. 
We  have  assumed  that  Jesus  completed  his  Galilean 
ministry  before  coming  to  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  and 
it  seems  most  consistent  with  all  the  known  facts  to 
regard  him  as  going  from  the  feast  of  tabernacles  to 
Peraea,  but  tarrying  for  a  time  at  different  points  with- 
in the  boundaries  of  Judea.  It  is  at  least  probable  that 
the  events  described,  Matthew  12:22-45,  Luke  11 :  14-35 
and  Mark  3:20-30,  took  place  as  Jesus  journeyed  from 
Jerusalem  to  Peraea  after  the  feast  of  tabernacles.  His 
teachings  at  Jerusalem  during  the  latter  part  of  the  feast 
had  created  intense  interest  and  excitement.  The  Jewish 
leaders  were  not  of  one  mind  concerning  him,  some 

296 


DISCOURSE  CONCERNING  BLASPHEMY  297 

saying  he  was  possessed  by  a  demon,  while  others  pro- 
tested that  his  sayings  were  not  the  sayings  of  one  so 
possessed.  This  division  of  sentiment  combined  with  his 
own  personal  majesty  to  prevent  his  arrest,  and,  no 
doubt,  led  many  friends  and  enemies  to  accompany  or 
follow  him  when  he  left  the  city.  This  explains  the 
presence  of  the  Pharisees  as  he  taught  and  healed  on  his 
way  to  Persea. 

Jesus,  with  his  disciples,  was  probably  well  on  his  way 
to  Peraea  when  he  healed  a  dumb  and  blind  demoniac. 
This  miracle  precipitated  a  controversy;  some  were  fa- 
vourably impressed  and  said,  "Is  not  this  the  Son  of 
David?"  Others  declared  that  he  cast  out  demons  by 
Beelzebub  the  prince  of  the  demons.  In  this  controversy 
both  Jesus  and  the  Pharisees  recognized  a  kingdom  of 
darkness  in  this  world  that  was  under  dominion  of  the 
prince  of  darkness.  When  the  Pharisees  accused  Jesus 
of  being  in  league  with  Beelzebub  the  prince  of  demons, 
if  there  had  been  no  such  prince  Jesus  would  have  said 
so,  but,  instead  of  denying  the  existence  of  such  a  being, 
he  declared  that  Satan's  kingdom  was  not  divided  against 
itself ;  that  Satan  was  not  seeking  to  undo  his  own  work 
or  destroy  his  own  power. 

The  charge  that  Jesus  Christ  was  in  league  with  the 
powers  of  darkness  and  that  he  cast  out  demons  by  the 
power  given  to  him  by  Beelzebub,  was  made  frequently, 
but  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  openly  proclaimed  even 
at  this  time,  for  we  are  told  that  Jesus,  knowing  the 
thoughts  of  the  Pharisees,  exposed,  their  utter  unreason- 
ableness and  their  deadly  sinfulness.  First,  he  showed 
that  any  such  explanation  was  unreasonable.  He  had 
been  undoing  and  destroying  what  the  Pharisees  had 
recognized  as  the  work  of  Satan  and  he  said,  "If  Satan 
casteth  out  Satan,  he  is  divided  against  himself;    how 


298  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

then  shall  his  kingdom  stand?"  The  conclusiveness 
of  this  argument  is  evident  at  a  glance.  Jesus  was  do- 
ing the  work  of  God  and  it  was  absurd  to  attempt  to 
explain  his  power  by  saying  he  was  in  league  with  Satan, 
God's  enemy.  To  make  men  demoniacs  was  the  work  of 
Satan,  and  if  Satan  were  casting  out  demons,  he  would 
destroy  his  own  work,  Satan  may  lead  men  to  do  evil 
by  persuading  them  that  good  may  come,  but  he  does 
not  lead  men  to  do  good  that  evil  may  come. 

One  question  of  Jesus  in  this  discourse  has  occasioned 
much  dispute,  and  it  should  not  be  passed  over  un- 
noticed. He  said  to  his  accusers,  "If  I,  by  Beelzebub 
cast  out  demons,  by  whom  do  your  sons  cast  them  out? 
Therefore  shall  they  be  your  judges.  But,  if  I  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  cast  out  demons,  then  is  the  kingdom  of 
God  come  unto  you."  We  do  not  know  enough  of  the 
connection  and  circumstances  to  warrant  us  in  saying 
to  whom  Jesus  referred  when  he  said,  "by  whom  do  your 
sons  cast  them  out?"  We  cannot,  therefore,  determine 
the  meaning  and  scope  of  this  question.  It  may  be  said, 
however,  that  Jesus  did  not  compare  any  system  of  im- 
posture with  his  own  miracles. 

Having  exposed  the  foolishness  of  attributing  his 
power  to  do  good  to  a  league  with  Satan,  Jesus  pro- 
claimed the  great  truth  that  the  prince  of  this  world 
could  only  be  overcome  by  one  who  was  stronger  than 
he.  Before  any  one  can  enter  into  the  house  of  a 
strong  man  and  spoil  his  goods  he  must  first  bind  the 
strong  man.  There  can  be  no  compromise  between  the 
Prince  of  Peace  and  the  prince  of  this  world,  no  league 
of  light  with  darkness.  This  world  will  never  be  de- 
livered from  the  power  of  the  evil  one  until  a  stronger 
than  he  come  and  bind  him  and  then  destroy  his  works. 


DISCOURSE  CONCERNING  BLASPHEMY  299 

Our  Lord  now  turned  from  a  defense  of  himself 
and  uttered  a  most  solemn  warning.  He  declared  that 
there  was  no  neutral  ground,  that  whosoever  was  not 
with  him  was  against  him.  The  good  works  that  he  had 
done  by  the  Spirit  of  God  his  enemies  had  attributed  to 
the  evil  one  and  he  said,  "Every  sin  and  blasphemy  shall 
be  forgiven  unto  men ;  but  the  blasphemy  against  the 
Spirit  shall  not  be  forgiven.  And  whosoever  shall  speak 
a  word  against  the  Son  of  man,  it  shall  be  forgiven  him ; 
but  whosoever  shall  speak  against  the  Holy  Spirit,  it 
shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in  this  world,  nor  in 
the  world  which  is  to  come." 

The  Jews  had  often  spoken  against  him,  but  now  they 
were  attributing  his  miracles  of  good  to  an  evil  spirit, 
and,  by  so  doing,  were  deliberately  cutting  themselves  off 
from  all  possibility  of  receiving  the  truth.  The  real 
cause  of  their  unbelief  was  the  enmity  in  their  own 
hearts.  They  were  the  offspring  of  vipers,  and  could 
not  speak  good  things  nor  recognize  the  good  tree  by 
seeing  the  good  fruit.  They  were  opposed  to  Christ 
because  they  were  in  league  with  the  evil  one,  and  under 
his  dominion.  The  kingdom  of  God  had  come  unto  them, 
but  they  were  hostile  to  it,  and,  persisting  in  their  hos- 
tility, excluded  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  alone  was  able 
to  make  the  tree  good;  they  could  therefore  have  no 
forgiveness  either  in  this  world  or  in  the  world  which 
is  to  come. 

At  this  point  our  Lord  introduced  a  parable  saying, 
"The  unclean  spirit,  when  he  is  gone  out  of  the  man, 
passeth  through  waterless  places,  seeking  rest ;  and  find- 
ing none,  he  saith,  I  will  turn  back  to  my  house  whence 
I  came  out.  And  when  he  is  come,  he  findeth  it  swept 
and  garnished.  Then  goeth  he  and  taketh  to  him  seven 
other  spirits  more  evil  than  himself ;    and  they  enter 


300  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

in  and  dwell  there;  and  the  last  state  of  that  man  be- 
cometh  worse  than  the  first." 

This  parable  could  be  applied  to  the  nation  or  to  the 
individual.  Great  joys  and  great  sorrows  sweep  and 
garnish  the  soul,  but  the  result  will  be  a  worse  man  if 
the  soul  is  not  so  filled  with  gratitude  to  God  and  good 
purposes  as  to  exclude  evil.  Great  opportunities  make 
men  better  or  worse,  and  great  opportunities  unimproved 
leave  the  souls  of  men  swept  and  garnished,  that  they 
may  become  the  abode  of  either  good  or  evil.  The  king- 
dom of  God  had  come  near  to  these  Jews,  but  their 
high  privileges  might  only  work  their  deeper  ruin.  An 
individual  or  a  nation  overwhelmed  by  calamities  may 
either  draw  nearer  to  God  or  rebel  against  him.  The 
house  is  swept  by  calamities,  but  it  may  be  made  worse. 
An  individual  or  a  nation  may  be  overwhelmed  with 
blessings  and  opportunities ;  the  house  may  be  swept 
in  this  way,  but  the  result  may  be  great  gratitude  God- 
ward  and  noble  purposes  manward,  or  it  may  be  great 
pride  Godward  and  great  selfishness  manward.  Any 
one  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people  could 
see  the  national  application  of  this  parable,  and  any  one 
who  has  ordinary  intelligence  can  see  how  it  will  ap- 
ply to  his  own  heart.  By  joys  and  sorrows  our  souls  are 
swept  and  garnished,  but  they  will  not  be  kept  empty ;  if 
the  Spirit  of  God  and  of  good  does  not  take  possession, 
evil  spirits  will  come. 

The  discourse  was  interrupted  at  this  point  by  a  wom- 
an exclaiming  in  a  loud  voice,  "Blessed  is  the  womb 
that  bare  thee,  and  the  breasts  which  thou  didst  suck." 
Christ's  words  had  touched  her  own  heart  and  so  stirred 
her  own  soul  that  she  could  not  refrain  from  proclaiming 
what  she  so  deeply  felt.  Our  Lord  replied,  "Yea  rather, 
blessed  are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God,  and  do  it." 


DISCOURSE  CONCERNING  BLASPHEMY  301 

This  woman's  praise  was  better  than  the  criticisms  of 
scribes  and  Pharisees,  but  it  was  sentimental  and  ephem- 
eral rather  than  spiritual. 

The  scribes  and  Pharisees  seemed  to  be  awed  by  our 
Lord's  solemn  warning,  and  they  asked  him  for  a  sign. 
What  they  sought  or  expected  as  a  sign  they  probably  did 
not  know.  Jesus  had  wrought  great  miracles  that  should 
have  convinced  them  that  he  had  come  from  God,  but 
they  had  attributed  his  power  to  Beelzebub,  and  they 
could  do  the  same  again  if  he  should  grant  their  request 
and  show  them  other  signs.  He  did  not  grant  their  re- 
quest, but,  addressing  them  as  an  evil  and  adulterous  gen- 
eration seeking  after  a  sign,  he  said,  no  sign  should  be 
given  but  the  sign  of  Jonah  the  prophet,  and  added,  "As 
Jonah  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  belly  of 
the  whale,  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days  and 
three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth." 

In  using  these  words  he  clothed  with  profound  mean- 
ing a  very  remarkable,  but  seemingly  unimportant  in- 
cident in  Old  Testament  history.  At  the  same  time  he 
predicted  the  crowning  miracle  of  Christianity,  his 
own  death  and  his  resurrection  on  the  third  day.  The 
scribes  and  Pharisees  had  asked  for  a  sign,  and  he  de- 
clared that  in  the  fullness  of  time  this  great  sign  should 
be  given.  All  other  signs  were  but  a  preparation  for 
this  one.  The  great  purpose  of  the  incarnation,  the 
climax  of  Christ's  work  was  the  laying  down  of  his 
life  that  he  might  take  it  again.  This  sign  was  for  all 
generations  and  would  beget  in  the  hearts  of  all  true  dis- 
ciples a  living  hope. 

After  this  subtle  allusion  to  his  own  death  and  resur- 
rection, an  illusion  that  could  only  be  fully  understood 
in  the  light  of  future  events,  Jesus  said  that  the  Queen 
of  the  south,  who  came  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon, 


302  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  the  men  of  Nineveh,  who  repented  at  the  preaching 
of  Jonah,  would  condemn  those  who  refused  to  believe 
a  greater  than  either  Jonah  or  Solomon. 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  regarding  the  words,  re- 
corded Luke  1 1 :  33-36,  as  belonging  to  another  time  and 
spoken  in  a  different  connection.  The  fact  that  Jesus 
said  something  very  like  this  in  his  sermon  on  the  mount 
is  no  good  reason  for  an  inference  that  he  did  not  close 
this  discourse  with  these  words.  He  was  speaking 
especially  to  those  who  professed  to  have  light,  to  those 
who  professed  to  have  clear  vision,  and  he  exhorted  them 
to  see  to  it  that  the  light  in  them  be  not  darkness,  that 
their  eyes  should  be  single.  As  God's  favored  people 
they  had  the  oracles  of  God,  the  light  of  revelation,  and 
they  should  be  lights  in  the  world,  but  if  their  eyes  were 
not  single,  the  light  in  them  would  be  darkness,  and  in- 
stead of  letting  the  true  light  shine,  they  would  obscure 
and  conceal  it. 


XLVIII 

BREAKFAST  IN  A  PHARISEE'S  HOUSE,  OTHER 
INCIDENTS  AND  DISCOURSES 

Luke  11:42.     "Woe  unto  you,  Pharisees!" 
Luke  12:  I.    "Beware  ye  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees  which 
is  hypocrisy." 

(Luke  11:37;    13:  I7-) 

IT  is  not  possible  to  determine  with  any  great  degree 
of  certainty  either  the  precise  time  or  the  exact  ge- 
ographical location  of  the  incidents  recorded  Luke 
11:37-13:17.  We  have  assumed  that  Jesus  completed 
his  Galilean  ministry  before  going  up  to  Jerusalem  to 
attend  the  feast  of  tabernacles,  and  that  he  went  from  the 
feast  of  tabernacles  to  Perea  teaching  and  healing  by 
the  way.  It  seems  most  probable,  therefore,  that  the 
events  described  Luke  11 :  37-13: 17,  occurred  about  the 
time  Jesus  started  to  Jerusalem  to  attend  the  feast  of 
dedication  in  December,  or  as  he  journeyed  toward 
Jerusalem.  If  this  assumption  as  to  time  be  correct  the 
geographical  location  might  be  either  Perea,  the  borders 
of  Galilee  and  Samaria,  or  the  outlying  districts  of  Judea. 
Uncertainty  as  to  time  and  place  may  aid  rather  than 
hinder  our  efforts  to  understand  or  interpret  the  mind 
of  Christ  as  it  is  revealed  in  these  incidents.  This  un- 
certainty may  also  aid  us  in  learning  the  lessons  that 
these  incidents  are  adapted  to  teach.  In  this  discourse 
Jesus  says  things  that  he  said  at  other  times  and  in 

303 


304  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

other  circumstances,  and,  as  these  sayings  have  been,  or 
will  be  studied  elsewhere,  it  is  not  necessary  to  analyze 
them  here.  We,  therefore,  make  only  a  very  brief 
sketch  or  outline  that  may  be  helpful  to  those  who  may 
wish  to  take  up  all  the  events  in  detail. 

In  his  controversy  with  the  Pharisees  and  other  critics 
at  this  time  Jesus  did  not  have  any  personal  feeling  of 
anger  toward  these  particular  Pharisees,  and  did  not 
find  pleasure  in  using  words  that  wounded  them.  He 
could  pray  for  these  as  he  afterwards  prayed  for  other 
enemies,  "Father  forgive  them."  Jesus  condemned  the 
religious  system  of  the  Pharisees  insofar  as  it  substituted 
outward  forms  for  real  vital  piety  and  faith  in  God.  He 
condemned  their  hypocrisy  which  caused  an  atrophy  of 
all  true  ethical  perceptions. 

These  controversies  with  the  Pharisees  and  with 
others  were  not  recorded  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
succeeding  generations  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  Phar- 
isees and  other  men  of  Christ's  day.  They  are  recorded 
for  the  purpose  of  warning  all  men  everywhere  and  in 
every  age  against  the  besetting  sin  of  all  religious  sys- 
tems. 

Luke  introduces  his  account  of  Christ's  partaking  of 
the  morning  meal  in  a  Pharisee's  house,  by  saying,  "As 
he  spake,  a  Pharisee  asketh  him  to  breakfast  with  him; 
and  he  went  in  and  sat  down  to  meat."  The  expression, 
"as  he  spake"  does  not  necessarily  connect  this  invitation 
of  the  Pharisee  directly  with  the  preceding  discourse  of 
Jesus.  It  does  not  seem  at  all  probable  that  a  Pharisee 
should  invite  Jesus  to  breakfast  with  him  immediately 
after  the  conflict  concerning  the  healing  of  the  dumb 
man.  Moreover,  this  was  the  morning  meal,  and  it  is 
hardly  possible  that  all  the  events  recorded  could  have 
taken  place  before  breakfast. 


BREAKFAST  IN  A  PHARISEE'S  HOUSE    305 

There  is  no  good  reason  for  believing  that  this  Phar- 
isee asked  Jesus  to  his  table  in  order  to  dispute  with  him 
or  to  insult  him,  but,  when  he  saw  that  Jesus  did  not  ob- 
serve the  religious  rite  of  hand-washing,  he  marveled.  He 
did  not  marvel  merely  because  Jesus  had  done  a  thing 
that  seemed  discourteous  to  his  host  or  other  guests, 
but  because  he  had  committed  what  seemed  to  him  a 
great  sin.  Had  the  washing  of  hands  been  a  mere  matter 
of  custom,  having  no  religious  significance,  Jesus,  no 
doubt,  would  have  conformed  to  the  custom,  but  it  was 
a  part  of  a  system  of  religious  formalism  that  destroyed 
the  very  life  and  usurped  the  place  of  religion.  To  ob- 
serve this  rite  was  to  seem  to  sanction  the  traditions  that 
had  made  void  the  law  of  God  and  had  led  men  to  neglect 
justice,  judgment  and  mercy. 

The  Pharisee's  astonishment  was  probably  indicated 
by  some  word  or  act  while  at  the  table  or  afterwards, 
so  that  Jesus  felt  constrained  to  correct  and  rebuke  him. 
He,  therefore,  said  to  him,  "Now  do  ye  Pharisees  cleanse 
the  outside  of  the  cup  and  the  platter;  but  your  inward 
part  is  full  of  extortion  and  wickedness.  Ye  foolish 
ones ;  did  not  he  that  made  the  outside  make  the  inside 
also?" 

In  the  discourse  that  followed  in  which  Jesus  ex- 
claimed, "Woe  unto  you  Pharisees!"  and  "Woe  unto 
you  lawyers !"  he  expressed  his  abhorrence  of  the  sub- 
stitution of  outward  forms  of  religion  for  real  and  vital 
godliness.  Jesus  approved,  both  by  precept  and  ex- 
ample, the  careful  observance  of  divinely  appointed  or- 
dinances, and  he  only  rebuked  the  self  righteous  hypoc- 
risy that  multiplied  religious  forms  and  substituted  them 
for  vital  piety. 

In  all  this  Jesus  rebuked  not  only  those  who  were 
present,  but  all  religious  teachers  in  all  ages  who  exhibit 


3o6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  same  spirit.  Self  righteous  formalism  that  makes 
clean  the  outside  and  substitutes  formal  religious  ob- 
servances for  justice,  judgment  and  mercy,  is  probably 
as  prevalent  in  the  Christian  church  nov^^  as  it  was  then. 
Selfish,  scheming  manipulation  in  order  to  secure  the 
high  places  in  religious  organizations,  assemblies,  coun- 
cils and  conferences,  are,  no  doubt,  as  prevalent  today 
as  they  were  in  Christ's  day,  and  his  rebuke  to  the  Phar- 
isee is  as  much  needed  now  as  it  was  when  these  words 
were  first  spoken.  When  he  said  "Woe  unto  you  Phar- 
isees for  ye  love  the  chief  seats  in  the  synagogue  and 
the  salutations  in  the  market  places,"  he  rebuked  those 
who  in  all  ages  selfishly  scheme  and  manipulate  in  order 
to  secure  the  high  places  in  religious  organizations. 
When  he  said,  "Woe  unto  you  lawyers,  for  ye  lade  men 
with  burdens  grievous  to  be  borne  and  ye  yourselves 
touch  not  the  burdens  with  one  of  your  fingers,"  he  re- 
bukes all  who  interpret  God's  law  harshly  for  others 
while  not  applying  it  to  themselves. 

After  recording  the  discourse  in  the  Pharisee's  house, 
Luke  goes  on  to  say,  "In  the  meantime,  when  the  many 
thousands  of  the  multitude  were  gathered  together,  inso- 
much that  they  trode  one  upon  another  he  began  to  say 
unto  his  disciples  first  of  all,  beware  ye  of  the  leaven  of 
the  Pharisees  which  is  hypocrisy." 

This  assembling  of  the  multitude  probably  took  place 
while  Jesus  was  breakfasting  in  the  Pharisee's  house. 
His  condemnation  of  the  Pharisees  had  been  direct  and 
intense,  not  because  he  was  angry  with  them,  nor  be- 
cause he  regarded  them  as  his  personal  enemies,  but  be- 
cause he  wished  to  correct  their  false  conception  of  re- 
ligion and  their  evil  practices.  When  he  warned  his 
disciples  against  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,  he  warned 
them  against  the  Pharisaic  system.    The  motive  power 


BREAKFAST  IN  A  PHARISEE'S  HOUSE    307 

of  the  Pharisees  was  selfishness.  It  took  the  form  of 
pride,  envy,  hatred,  malice,  and  other  spirits  of  evil  that 
would  not  bear  the  light.  The  essential  mark  and  leaven 
of  the  Pharisee  was  hypocrisy.  He  was  cunning,  subtle, 
deceitful.  He  loved  concealment  and  was  doing  what 
he  did  not  seem  to  be  doing.  He  could  not  be  frank, 
honest,  transparent.  Against  this  deadly  leaven  of  hy- 
pocrisy, Jesus  warned  his  disciples  and  declared  that 
the  time  was  coming  when  all  secrets  should  be  revealed. 
He  showed  them  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  conceal- 
ing any  good  thing,  and  that  they  were  not  to  fear  men, 
who  could  only  kill  the  body.  He  declared  that  their 
heavenly  Father  knew  all  secrets  and  knew  the  number 
of  the  hairs  of  their  heads,  and  would  protect  them. 

These  words  of  Jesus  were  spoken  to  his  disciples,  in- 
cluding the  whole  multitude  who  in  any  way  professed 
to  be  his  followers.  They  are  for  the  Christian  church 
in  every  age.  The  Christian  church  should  have  no  part 
in  any  work  that  cannot  bear  the  light.  To  every  disciple 
in  every  age  Jesus  says  "beware  of  hypocrisy."  Do  not 
conceal  right  purposes,  however  unpopular  they  may  be. 
God  rules,  and  you  can  afford  to  be  known  as  the  friends 
of  right  and  truth  even  when  right  and  truth  seem  weak. 
Do  not  harbor  wrong  motives  and  try  to  conceal  them, 
for  the  time  is  coming  when  every  secret  shall  be  re- 
vealed. Do  not  seem  to  be  what  you  are  not.  If  you  be- 
lieve in  Christ  do  not  play  the  hypocrite  by  failing  to 
confess  him  before  men. 

To  this  warning  against  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees, 
our  Lord  added  a  warning  against  blaspheming  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  connected  this  warning  with  the  exhorta- 
tion to  not  conceal  their  real  character.  The  man  who 
conceals  his  own  motives  is  ever  ready  to  believe  that 
other  men  are  concealing  their  real  motives.    It  follows 


3o8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  the  man  who  practices  any  kind  of  hypocrisy  is  in 
special  danger  of  committing  this  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost  which  is  the  culmination  of  the  works  of  darkness. 

Amongst  the  number  of  those  who  heard  the  Master's 
words  was  one  man  who  did  not  feel  that  he  was  touched 
by  the  warning  against  the  Pharisaic  spirit.  He  prob- 
ably made  no  pretensions  that  he  was  more  religious  than 
others.  He  never  thought  much  about  religion,  but  he 
had  a  controversy  with  his  brother  about  the  division  of 
an  estate.  He  thought  that  he  had  a  just  claim  and  he 
thought  our  Lord's  clear  vision  would  enable  him  to  see 
the  justness  of  the  claim.  Obsessed  by  his  one  idea,  he 
exclaimed,  "Master  bid  my  brother  divide  the  inheritance 
with  me."  Jesus  replied,  "Man  who  made  me  a  judge 
or  divider  over  you?"  Then  he  said  to  the  multitude, 
"Take  heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covetousness ; 
for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  things 
that  he  possesseth." 

He  enforced  this  exhortation  with  a  parable,  saying, 
"The  ground  of  a  certain  rich  man  brought  forth  plen- 
tifully: and  he  reasoned  within  himself,  saying.  What 
shall  I  do,  because  I  have  not  where  to  bestow  my  fruits  ? 
And  he  said.  This  will  I  do :  I  will  pull  down  my  barns, 
and  build  greater;  and  there  will  I  bestow  all  my  corn 
and  my  goods.  And  I  will  say  to  my  soul.  Soul,  thou 
hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years ;  take  thine 
ease,  eat,  drink,  be  merry.  But  God  said  unto  him.  Thou 
foolish  one,  this  night  is  thy  soul  required  of  thee ;  and 
the  things  which  thou  hast  prepared,  whose  shall  they 
be?" 

In  the  rebuke  of  this  man  and  in  the  exhortation  to 
the  multitude,  Jesus  spoke  to  men  of  all  generations. 
The  great  besetting  sin  of  humanity  is  the  love  of 
money  which  is  a  root  of  all  evil,  and  covetousness  which 


BREAKFAST  IN  A  PHARISEE'S  HOUSE    309 

is  idolatry.  This  sin  results  from  looking  at  the  things 
seen  and  temporal  and  losing  sight  of  the  unseen,  spir- 
itual and  eternal  things  that  are  vastly  more  important 
for  immortals. 

After  again  assuring  his  disciples  that  they  were 
only  to  consider  fear  of  their  heavenly  Father,  Jesus 
proceeded  to  show  the  attitude  they  should  have  while 
they  were  in  this  world.  They  were  to  be  like  men  look- 
ing for  the  coming  of  their  Lord;  they  should  be  will- 
ing to  wait  for  his  return  when  they  would  be  rewarded 
for  their  faithfulness.  In  this  part  of  the  discourse  he 
taught  his  disciples  in  all  ages  that  they  are  not  to  be 
discouraged  if  their  heavenly  Father  permits  them  to 
suffer  wrongs  for  a  time.  They  are  watchmen,  waiting 
for  their  coming  Lord,  who  will  reward  their  faithfulness 
in  due  time.  They  are  to  look  to  the  future  and  live  in 
hope  of  the  future.  They  do  not  need  to  take  up  the 
cry,  "Why  doth  the  way  of  the  wicked  prosper?"  They 
are  not  to  be  discouraged  if  they  see  good  men  suffering 
adversity  in  this  world.  They  are  not  to  murmur  if  they 
are  called  to  suffer  for  well  doing.  All  this  will  be 
changed  when  their  Lord  comes.  If  they  will  be  faithful, 
all  will  be  well,  for  in  such  time  as  they  think  not  the  Son 
of  man  cometh. 

This  part  of  the  discourse  seemed  to  describe  so  ac- 
curately the  condition  of  the  twelve  that  Peter  said, 
"Lord,  speakest  thou  this  parable  unto  us  or  unto  all?" 
Our  Lord  answered  that  it  was  for  every  faithful  and 
wise  steward ;  and  he  promised  a  blessing  to  the  serv- 
ant whom  his  Lord  at  his  coming  should  find  faithfully 
performing  his  duty. 

He  added  a  warning  against  the  servant  who  should 
say  in  his  heart,  "My  Lord  delayeth  his  coming,"  and 
should  begin  to  usurp  authority  and  abuse  his  power.    To 


310  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OE  GOD 

the  faithful  servant  his  Lord  will  come  at  such  time  as 
he  thinks  not  and  he  shall  have  rewards  for  his  faithful- 
ness. To  the  unfaithful  his  Lord  will  come  when  not 
expected  and  shall  cut  him  asunder,  and  appoint  him  his 
portion  with  the  unfaithful.  The  real  reward  of  both  is 
in  the  future.  H  things  seem  inequitable  now  the  faith- 
ful should  not  despair  nor  murmur,  and  the  unfaithful 
should  not  flatter  himself  that  he  is  secure. 

Having  answered  Peter's  question,  Jesus  proceeded  to 
speak  of  his  own  mission  in  the  world.  He  declared  that 
he  was  the  Prince  of  Peace,  yet  he  came,  not  to  send 
peace,  but  a  sword;  he  came  to  kindle  a  fire  that  could 
only  be  quenched  when  all  falsehood  and  sin  had  been 
consumed.  He  declared  that  he  had  a  baptism  to  be  bap- 
tized with,  a  baptism  of  fire,  and  was  straitened  till  it  be 
accomplished.  He  proclaimed  himself  a  leader  and  the 
victim  in  that  baptism  of  fire  that  would  secure  the  re- 
demption of  a  lost  world. 

The  disciples  and  all  who  heard  him  must  have  felt 
that  they  were  approaching  some  great  tragedy,  and 
there  were  some  present,  who,  by  some  subtle  law  of  as- 
sociation, told  of  Pilate's  slaying  a  company  of  Gali- 
leans when  they  were  offering  sacrifice  so  that  their  blood 
mingled  with  the  blood  of  their  sacrifice. 

When  and  where  and  in  what  circumstances  this  trag- 
edy was  enacted,  we  do  not  know,  but  there  seemed  to  be 
something  in  our  Lord's  discourse  that  led  some  of  the 
multitude  to  speak  of  it  in  this  connection.  They  may 
have  thought  these  people  suffered  death  because  they 
had  been  guilty  of  some  gross  sin,  and  may  have  been 
comforting  themselves  with  the  thought  that  they  were 
not  depraved  sinners,  and  that  they  would  escape  when 
the  coming  tragedy  would  be  enacted.  All  this  is  indi- 
cated by  Christ's  words  when  he  said,  "Think  ye  that 


BREAKFAST  IN  A  PHARISEE'S  HOUSE    311 

these  Galileans  were  sinners  above  all  the  Galileans,  be- 
cause they  suffered  these  things?  I  tell  you  nay;  but, 
except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish."  The 
Perean  Jews  may  have  thought,  too,  that  the  judgments 
Jesus  predicted  were  for  Galileans  rather  than  for  the 
people  of  Jerusalem;  if  so,  our  Lord  dissipated  that 
error  by  reminding  them  of  the  eighteen  dwellers  at 
Jerusalem  on  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  fell,  and  he 
added,  "Think  ye  that  they  were  offenders  above  all 
the  men  that  dwell  in  Jerusalem?  I  tell  you  nay;  but, 
except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  likewise  perish." 

Our  lack  of  any  definite  and  reliable  information  con- 
cerning either  of  these  events  is  adapted  to  fix  our  at- 
tention on  the  error  Jesus  would  condemn,  and  on  the 
truth  he  would  teach.  It  was  a  prevalent  belief  that 
special  suffering  indicated  peculiar!  sinfulness.  Jesus 
taught  that  this  was  not  true.  He  taught  that  calamities 
coming  upon  certain  men  are  no  evidence  that  these  men 
have  been  guilty  of  any  special  sins,  for  all  are  sinners, 
and  all  will  perish  if  they  do  not  repent. 

This  admonition  is  followed  by  a  parable  that  can  be 
applied  either  to  the  Jewish  nation  or  to  the  individual. 
The  Jews,  trusting  to  their  high  privileges  as  the  people 
of  God,  could  hardly  be  convinced  that  they  were  to  be 
the  subjects  of  divine  displeasure.  They  had  been  taught 
that  God  would  chastise  them  as  a  nation,  but  they  could 
not  believe  that  he  would  reject  them  and  put  them  on 
a  level  with  other  nations,  since  they  were  the  seed  of 
Abraham  and  heirs  of  the  promise.  To  them  our  Lord 
said,  "Except  ye  repent  ye  shall  perish,"  and  then  he  told 
them  of  the  favored  fig  tree  yielding  no  fruit,  and  the 
resolution  to  cut  it  down.  For  three  years  the  owner 
of  the  vineyard  had  looked  for  fruit  on  this  tree,  but  had 
found  none.    This  had  been  the  history  of  Israel,  and 


312  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

especially  during  the  three  years  of  our  Lord's  ministry. 
It  was  spared  a  little  longer,  and  given  another  opportun- 
ity, and  we  know  the  result. 

This  parable  in  its  connection  may  apply  with  still 
greater  force  to  the  individual  who  enjoys  peculiar  re- 
ligious privileges,  but  yields  no  spiritual  fruit.  He  may 
be  spared  when  others  are  cut  down,  but  it  is  only  an 
extension  of  mercy  for  a  time,  and,  if  he  does  not  repent, 
he  will  surely  perish.  The  parable,  as  well  as  the  address 
that  precedes  it,  emphasizes  the  fact  that  great  privileges 
and  opportunities,  as  well  as  great  calamities,  do  not  of 
themselves  indicate  righteousness  or  unrighteousness  of 
men.  God  gives  great  opportunities  to  the  wicked  while 
they  are  in  the  world,  and  he  some  times  permits  great 
calamities  to  come  upon  the  righteous. 

The  next  incident  recorded  by  Luke  is  introduced  with- 
out any  definite  information  as  to  time  or  place,  except 
that  it  was  on  a  Sabbath  day  and  in  a  synagogue.  The 
ruler  of  the  Synagogue,  either  of  his  own  choice  or  by 
constraint,  had  permitted  Jesus  to  teach  in  the  Syna- 
gogue on  the  Sabbath ;  but  when,  by  a  word,  and  the  lay- 
ing on  of  his  hands,  Jesus  healed  a  woman,  who  had 
for  eighteen  years  been  bent  double  by  "a  spirit  of  in- 
firmity," the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  was  filled  with  in- 
dignation. This  man's  cold,  compassionless,  selfish  heart 
felt  no  thrill  of  joyful  gratitude  when  he  saw  this  chronic 
sufiferer  standing  upright  and  praising  God  for  her  de- 
liverance. He  could  not  conceal  his  self-righteous  anger 
by  keeping  silent,  but  said  to  the  multitude,  "There  are 
six  days  in  which  men  ought  to  work;  in  them,  there- 
fore, come  and  be  healed,  and  not  on  the  Sabbath."  But 
the  Lord  answered,  "Ye  hypocrites,  doth  not  each  one  of 
you  on  the  Sabbath  loose  his  ox  or  his  ass  from  the  stall 
and  lead  him  away  to  watering?     And  ought  not  this 


BREAKFAST  IN  A  PHARISEE'S  HOUSE    313 

woman,  being  a  daughter  of  Abraham,  whom  Satan 
hath  bound,  lo,  these  eighteen  years,  to  have  been  loosed 
from  this  bond  on  the  day  of  Sabbath?" 

The  answer  was  conclusive  and  overwhelming,  and  it 
was  accepted  by  the  multitude.  The  stupidly  censorious 
ruler  of  the  synagogue  had  not  directly  attacked  Christ 
for  performing  the  miracle,  but  had  condemned  the  wom- 
an for  coming  to  be  healed  or  for  permitting  Christ  to 
heal  her  on  the  Sabbath,  but  this  answer  vindicated  the 
woman,  the  multitude,  and  Jesus  himself,  leaving  the 
Pharisee  an  unmasked,   self-condemned  hypocrite. 

It  makes  very  little  difference  when,  where  or  how 
frequently  our  Lord  said  all  that  the  evangelist  has  put 
on  record  here.  The  teachings  are  for  all  men  in  every 
generation.  They  all  reveal  the  mind  of  Christ.  He  was 
frank,  transparent  and  absolutely  sincere  and  true.  He 
lived  in  the  conscious  presence  of  spiritual  and  eternal 
verities.  He  looked  for  reward,  not  in  time,  but  in  the 
eternal  years.  He  taught  the  Pharisees,  the  disciples,  the 
multitude,  and  teaches  all  men  in  all  ages  and  places  to 
be  like  himself. 


XLIX 
JESUS  AT  THE  FEAST  OF  THE  DEDICATION 

John  10:22.  "And  it  was  the  Feast  of  the  Dedication  at  Je- 
rusalem; it  was  winter,  and  Jesus  was  walking  in  the  temple  in 
Solomon's  porch." 

(Luke  13:18-22;   John  10:22-39.) 

AFTER  giving  an  account  of  Christ's  answer  to  the 
Pharisee  who  had  criticized  his  healing  an  afflicted 
woman  on  the  Sabbath,  Luke  records  the  parables 
of  the  mustard  seed  and  the  leaven,  and  then,  speaking  of 
Jesus,  says,  "He  went  on  his  way  through  cities  and  vil- 
lages, teaching  and  journeying  on  unto  Jerusalem." 

We  assume  that  this  general  statement  refers  to  the 
the  journey  from  Perea  to  Jerusalem  to  be  present  at  the 
feast  of  dedication.  The  record  found  in  the  gospel  by 
John  connects  what  occurred  at  the  feast  of  tabernacles 
directly  with  what  took  place  at  the  feast  of  dedication, 
and  one  might  infer  that  Jesus  had  not  been  away  from 
Jerusalem  during  the  more  than  two  months  that  sep- 
arated these  two  feasts ;  but  there  is  good  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  the  evangelist  Luke  supplements  John's  rec- 
ord at  this  point.  No  one  can  say  confidently  how  much 
of  the  record  found  in  Luke  9:51-18:15  preceded  the 
feast  of  dedication,  but  there  is  good  reason  for  believing 
that  the  evangelist  Luke  indicates  the  real  order  of  events 
at  this  point,  and  we  proceed  on  this  assumption. 

The  feast  of  the  dedication  was  instituted  by  Judas 
Maccabaeus   about   164  B.    C,   and  commemorated  the 

314 


JESUS  AT  FEAST  OF  THE  DEDICATION   315 

rededication  of  the  temple  after  it  had  been  desecrated  by 
Antiochus.  It  had  no  authority  nor  obHgation  as  a  di- 
vine institution,  but  was  recognized  as  a  day  of  reHgious 
devotion  and  national  thanksgiving.  It  lasted  eight  days, 
and  during  this  time  the  homes  of  the  people,  as  well 
as  the  temple,  were  illuminated  every  night. 

Jesus  left  an  excited  and  divided  multitude  in  the  tem- 
ple when  he  closed  his  discourses  at  the  feast  of  taber- 
nacles, and,  when  he  appeared  again  at  the  feast  of  the 
dedication,  the  Jews  gathered  about  him  as  he  walked  in 
Solomon's  porch.  They  reopened  the  controversy  by 
saying,  "How  long  dost  thou  hold  us  in  suspense?  If 
thou  art  the  Christ,  tell  us  plainly." 

If  this  question  had  been  asked  by  only  one  person 
we  might  hope  to  determine  the  motive  that  prompted 
it;  but  it  was  asked  by  the  multitude,  and  there  were 
probably  different  motives,  Jesus  had  told  the  Jews 
who  he  was  so  plainly  that  they  had  taken  up  stones  to 
stone  him,  and  they  did  not  need  to  ask  again  for  such 
information  as  would  enable  them  to  decide  a  question  of 
doubt.  He  knew  that  they  were  asking  this  question  in 
order  to  get  more  definite  accusations  against  him  and 
he  replied,  "I  told  you,  and  ye  believe  not ;  the  works 
that  I  do  in  my  Father's  name,  these  bear  witness  of  me. 
But  ye  believe  not,  because  ye  are  not  of  my  sheep.  My 
sheep  hear  my  voice,  and  I  know  them,  and  they  follow 
me;  and  I  give  unto  them  eternal  life;  and  they  shall 
never  perish,  and  no  one  shall  snatch  them  out  of  my 
hand.  My  Father,  which  hath  given  them  unto  me,  is 
greater  than  all ;  and  no  one  is  able  to  snatch  them  out 
of  the  Father's  hand.     I  and  the  Father  are  one," 

These  last  words  so  enraged  the  Jews  that  they  again 
took  up  stones  to  stone  him.  Their  anger  was  conclusive 
proof  of  the  truth  of  the  charge  that  Jesus  had  just  made. 


3i6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

In  striking  contrast  with  their  anger  and  excitement, 
Jesus  was  as  fearless  and  calm  as  when  he  quieted  the 
winds  and  the  waves  on  Galilee.  He  said,  "Many  good 
works  have  I  showed  you  from  the  Father.  For  which 
of  those  works  do  ye  stone  me?" 

The  Jews  retorted,  "For  a  good  work  we  stone  thee 
not,  but  for  blasphemy ;  and  because  thou,  being  a  man, 
makest  thyself  God." 

Jesus  did  not  withdraw  his  claim  nor  did  he  hint  that 
they  had  misunderstood  his  words,  but  he  did  deny  the 
charge  that  it  was  blasphemy  for  him  to  say,  "I  am  the 
Son  of  God."  On  the  other  hand,  he  declared  that  his 
works  were  the  works  of  the  Father,  and  that  they  con- 
firmed his  claims.  He  added,  "If  I  do  not  the  works 
of  my  Father,  believe  me  not;  but  if  I  do  them,  though 
ye  believe  not  me,  believe  the  works,  that  ye  may  know 
and  understand  that  the  Father  is  in  me,  and  I  in  the 
Father." 

This  language  cannot  be  misunderstood.  No  honest 
man  can  accept  these  words  in  their  connection,  as  the 
very  words  of  Christ,  without  confessing  that  he  claimed 
to  be  the  Divine  Son  of  God.  The  Jews  had  not  misun- 
derstood him,  but  they  refused  to  admit  his  claims,  and, 
when  they  sought  to  take  him,  he  went  forth  out  of  their 
hands.  There  was  no  longer  any  room  for  doubt.  He 
must  be  accepted  as  the  Son  of  God,  or  he  must  be  re- 
jected as  a  blasphemer  for  making  himself  equal  with 
God. 


FROM  THE  FEAST  OF  THE  DEDICATION  TO 
THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS 

John  10 :  40-42.  "And  he  went  away  again  beyond  Jordan  into 
the  place  where  John  was  at  the  first  baptizing;  and  there  he 
abode.  And  many  came  unto  him ;  and  they  said,  John  indeed 
did  no  sign,  but  all  things  whatsoever  John  spake  of  this  man  were 
true.     And  many  believed  on  him  there." 

(Luke  13:  18-17:  10;   John  10:  40-42.) 

THE  evangelist  John,  having  given  an  account  of 
our  Lord's  controversy  v^ith  the  Jews  as  he 
walked  in  Solomon's  porch  at  the  feast  of  the 
dedication,  says,  "He  went  away  again  beyond  Jordan 
into  the  place  where  John  was  at  the  first  baptizing ;  and 
there  he  abode  many  days."  Then,  after  saying  that 
many  believed  on  him,  John  proceeds  to  give  an  account 
of  Jesus'  return  to  Bethany  and  the  raising  of  Lazarus. 
We  have  no  definite  information  as  to  the  exact  time 
when  Lazarus  was  raised  from  the  dead,  but  it  was  at 
least  two  months  after  the  feast  of  the  dedication,  and 
we  assume  that  the  Gospel  by  Luke,  13:18-17:10, 
covers  this  period  concerning  which  the  other  evangelists 
are  silent 

In  a  preceding  chapter  we  assumed  that  Luke's  account 
of  our  Lord's  journeying  to  Jerusalem,  Luke  13 :  22,  re- 
ferred to  his  going  to  the  feast  of  the  dedication.  This 
could  only  be  done  by  taking  it  out  of  the  connection  in 
which  that  evangelist  records  it ;  but  it  seems  more  rea- 

317 


3i8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

sonable  to  do  this  than  to  regard  it  as  describing  the  jour- 
ney of  Jesus  to  Bethany  when  he  went  to  raise  Lazarus 
from  the  dead.  It  is  possible,  though,  that  this  incidental 
statement  of  Luke  covers  the  whole  latter  period  of  our 
Lord's  life  when  his  general  course  was  toward  the  con- 
summation of  his  work  at  Jerusalem.  When  he  was  on 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration  he  talked  with  Moses  and 
Elijah  about  his  decease  which  he  was  to  accomplish  at 
Jerusalem ;  when  he  was  warned  against  Herod's  pur- 
pose to  kill  him,  he  rejected  the  advice  to  escape  from 
Herod,  and,  at  the  same  time,  said,  "it  cannot  be  that  a 
prophet  perish  out  of  Jerusalem."  It  seems  evident, 
therefore,  that  in  our  Lord's  own  mind  the  whole  period 
from  the  Transfiguration  to  the  Crucifixion  was  a  "jour- 
neying on  unto  Jerusalem,"  and  we  study  these  events 
recorded  by  Luke  without  any  reference  to  their  exact 
chronology. 

The  parables  of  a  former  period  were  symbolical,  pre- 
senting unseen,  spiritual,  heavenly  realities  by  means  of 
visible,  earthly  emblems.  The  parables  of  this  period 
are  practical  and,  in  a  sense,  typical  and  hortatory.  To 
this  class  belong  the  parables  of  the  good  Samaritan,  of 
the  friend  at  midnight,  of  the  rich  fool,  of  the  servants 
watching  and  of  the  barren  fig  tree,  concerning  which  we 
have  already  spoken.  The  parable  of  the  mustard  seed, 
though  recorded  here,  seems  to  belong  to  the  first  series, 
and  is  recorded  also  by  Matthew  and  Mark,  and  the  same 
is  true  of  the  parable  of  the  leaven  recorded  also  by  Mat- 
thew. 

Following  the  order  of  events  as  they  are  recorded  by 
Luke,  we  first  have  an  account  of  some  one  saying  to 
Jesus,  "Lord,  are  there  few  that  be  saved?"  To  this 
curious  question  our  Lord  replied  that  the  time  would 
come  when  the  door  of  the  kingdom  would  be  closed,  and 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    319 

added  an  exhortation  to  strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,  since  many  would  seek  to  enter  in  and  not  be  able. 

This  was  only  a  personal  application  of  what  had  al- 
ready been  said  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  but  it 
seems  more  impressive  here  because  it  is  more  personal. 
It  applies  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  to  all  who  can  only  be 
interested  in  curious  religious  questions  and  are  trusting 
to  the  fact  that  they  enjoy  peculiar  privileges  without 
improving  them.  It  seems  evident  that  the  man  who 
asked  the  question  was  a  Jew,  that  he  was  resting  on  that 
fact  as  a  ground  of  personal  security,  and  he  is  told  that 
there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth  when  they 
shall  see  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  all  the  prophets 
in  the  kingdom  of  God,  while  they  themselves  are  cast 
out.  Our  Lord's  answer  emphasizes  the  practical  truth 
that,  not  our  privileges,  but  the  use  we  make  of  them  will 
determine  our  destiny.  To  all  those  who  can  only  boast 
that  Jesus  Christ  has  taught  in  their  streets,  or  that  they 
have  had  gospel  privileges,  he  will  say  at  the  last,  "De- 
part from  me,  all  ye  workers  of  iniquity." 

After  recording  this  intensely  earnest  and  solemn  ad- 
monition, Luke  goes  on  to  say,  "In  that  very  hour,  there 
came  certain  Pharisees,  saying  to  Jesus,  Get  thee  out  and 
go  hence,  for  Herod  would  fain  kill  thee." 

The  motive  of  these  Pharisees  can  only  be  inferred 
from  what  we  know  of  the  Pharisaic  character  and  from 
our  Lord's  answer.  The  Pharisees  may  only  have  sought 
to  harass  and  annoy  Jesus  because  he  had  proclaimed 
their  boasted  descent  from  Abraham  as  of  no  value  un- 
less they  rightly  used  their  privileges ;  or,  they  may  have 
hoped  that  he  would  be  alarmed  and  seek  concealment 
outside  of  Herod's  jurisdiction,  and,  by  so  doing,  forfeit 
the  confidence  of  the  multitude ;  or,  they  may  have 
thought  to  provoke  Jesus  to  say  something  that  they  could 


320  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

use  against  him.  Whatever  their  motive,  our  Lord's 
answer  was  remarkable.  If  his  divine  and  boundless 
compassion  ever  gave  place  to  contempt,  it  was  when  he 
had  to  do  with  or  speak  of  Herod  Antipas.  When  these 
Pharisees  told  him  that  Herod  would  fain  kill  him,  he 
replied,  "Go  and  say  to  that  fox,  Behold  I  cast  out  de- 
mons and  perform  cures  to-day,  to-morrow  and  the  third 
day  I  am  perfected."  Afterwards,  when  he  was  on  trial 
before  Pilate  he  treated  his  judge  with  dignified  compas- 
sion, but  when  he  stood  before  Herod  he  would  not  utter 
a  word.  Herod  was  a  weak,  cunning,  capricious,  sensual, 
superstitious  despot — the  worst  specimen  of  a  bad  fam- 
ily. He  had  murdered  John  the  Baptist ;  he  was  living 
in  adultery  with  his  brother's  wife,  but  was  still  making 
some  pretentions  to  be  religious;  and  now  his  name  is 
used  to  threaten  and,  if  possible,  alarm  the  Christ  of  God. 
If  any  one  could  transform  divine  compassion  into  con- 
tempt, this  was  the  man,  and  Jesus  spoke  of  him  as  he 
spoke  of  no  other.  He  neither  feared  nor  respected  such 
a  man,  and  when  he  spoke  of  him  he  called  him  "that 
fox." 

But  our  Lord's  answer  was  for  the  Pharisees  as  well 
as  for  Herod,  and  he  added,  "How  be  it  I  must  go  on  my 
way  to-day  and  to-morrow  and  the  day  following,  for  it 
cannot  be  that  a  prophet  perish  out  of  Jerusalem.  O, 
Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  which  killeth  the  prophets  and 
stoneth  them  that  are  sent  unto  her !  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gath- 
ereth  her  own  brood  under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not ! 
Behold  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate ;  and  I  say 
unto  you.  Ye  shall  not  see  me  until  ye  shall  say,  Blessed 
is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

If  these  Pharisees  sought  to  frighten  Jesus  by  telling 
him  of  Herod  who  had  killed  John  the  Baptist,  they  were 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    321 

disappointed,  for  Jesus  told  them  plainly  that  neither 
Peraea  nor  Galilee  should  have  the  infamy  of  killing  the 
Christ  of  God.  He  had  nothing  to  fear  from  Herod 
Antipas,  but  he  must  hasten  to  Jerusalem  to  drink  the 
cup  that  he  had  accepted  as  the  Redeemer  of  his  people. 
It  was  when  he  thought  of  Jerusalem  that  he  was  con- 
fronted with  the  great  tragedy  for  which  he  became  in- 
carnate. 

About  this  time,  on  a  Sabbath  day,  Jesus  went  into  the 
house  of  one  of  th-e  rulers  of  the  Pharisees  to  eat  bread. 
His  invitation  to  dine  with  this  Pharisee  was  not  prompt- 
ed by  real  friendship,  for  the  evangelist  adds,  "they  were 
watching  him."  It  is  possible  that  the  real  motive  of  the 
Pharisee  was  a  desire  to  ensnare  him.  However  this 
may  me,  these  Pharisees  knew  of  Christ's  healing  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  in  this  Pharisee's  house  there  was  a 
special  opportunity  to  again  do  as  he  had  already  done 
elsewhere,  for  there  was  before  him  a  certain  man  who 
had  the  dropsy.  Jesus  knew  the  sentiments  of  the 
Pharisees  without  asking,  but  he  gave  them  an  oppor- 
tunity to  commit  themselves,  as  he  said,  to  the  lawyers 
and  Pharisees  present,  "Is  it  lawful  to  heal  on  the  Sab- 
bath or  not?"  Had  they  been  really  desirous  that  their 
idea  of  Sabbath  keeping  should  be  respected,  they  would 
have  answered  this  question,  but  they  were  silent.  They 
wished  Jesus  to  do  what  they  regarded  as  Sabbath  break- 
ing in  order  that  they  might  accuse  him.  Their  zeal  for 
the  Sabbath  was  only  a  cloak  for  their  jealous,  envious 
hatred  of  Jesus,  for  they  held  their  peace  when  they 
might  have  hoped  to  prevent  what  they  regarded  as  a 
violation  of  the  law  of  the  Sabbath. 

Our  Lord  then  healed  the  man,  and  defended  his  ac- 
tion by  saying,  to  those  who  had  witnessed  the  miracle, 
"Which  of  you  shall  have  an  ass  or  an  ox  fallen  into  a 


322  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

well,  and  will  not  straightway  draw  him  out  on  the  Sab- 
bath day?"  The  Pharisees  could  not  answer.  To  con- 
demn Christ's  act  was  to  condemn  themselves. 

After  this  episode,  which  probably  occurred  before  the 
company  had  taken  their  places  at  the  table,  our  Lord, 
when  he  marked  how  the  guests  chose  the  chief  seats, 
said,  "When  thou  art  bidden  of  any  man  to  a  marriage 
feast,  sit  not  down  in  the  chief  seat;  lest  haply  a  more 
honorable  man  than  thou  be  bidden  of  him,  and  he  that 
bade  thee  and  him  shall  come  and  say  unto  thee,  Give 
place,  and  then  thou  shalt  begin  with  shame  to  take  the 
lowest  place.  But  when  thou  art  bidden,  go  and  sit  down 
in  the  lowest  place,  that  when  he  that  hath  bidden  thee 
cometh,  he  shall  say  unto  thee.  Friend,  go  up  higher; 
then  shalt  thou  have  glory  in  the  presence  of  all  that  sit 
at  meat  with  thee." 

This  admonition  certainly  does  not  commend  a  false 
humility,  that  assumes  the  humble  position  with  the  mind 
fixed  on  the  high  position.  He  who  rightly  honours  the 
giver  of  the  feast  will  delight  in  taking  the  position  as- 
signed him  by  his  host,  whether  it  be  the  lowest  or  the 
highest.  If  he  have  supreme  respect  for  the  host,  he  will 
esteem  the  lowest  place  sufficiently  honourable.  If  it  is 
to  be  a  scramble  for  the  highest  places  without  regard  to 
the  judgment  of  him  who  gives  the  feast,  there  is  no  real 
honour  anywhere.  This  parable  commends  true  hu- 
mility, that  will  not  trouble  itself  about  distinctions  of 
place,  but  will  with  loving  gratitude  take  the  place  as- 
signed. Every  man-made  feast  is  defective,  since  the 
host,  as  well  as  the  guests,  may  be  vain  and  foolish ;  but 
in  the  gospel  feast,  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  humility  is  the 
cardinal  virtue  because  it  realizes  that  only  God  is  great. 

That  this  is  the  correct  interpretation  of  Christ's  words 
to  the  guest  is  evident  from  the  admonition  addressed  to 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    323 

the  host.  The  host,  as  well  as  his  guests,  may,  and  prob- 
ably did  in  this  case,  exhibit  vanity  and  selfishness  by  his 
invitations,  and  our  Lord  said  to  him,  "When  thou  mak- 
est  a  dinner  or  a  supper,  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  thy 
brethren,  nor  thy  kinsmen,  nor  thy  rich  neighbours ;  lest 
haply  they  also  bid  thee  again  and  a  recompense  be  made 
thee.  But  when  thou  makest  a  feast,  bid  the  poor,  the 
maimed,  the  lame,  the  blind ;  and  thou  shalt  be  blessed ; 
because  they  have  not  wherewith  to  recompense  thee; 
for  thou  shalt  be  recompensed  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
just." 

In  these  words  to  host  and  invited  guests,  Jesus  con- 
trasted the  spirit  of  selfishness  and  vanity  with  the  man 
ennobling  spirit  of  the  gospel,  even  in  the  matter  of  giving 
and  attending  a  supper,  and  exhorted  all  to  rise  above  the 
present  and  look  forward  to  the  resurrection  of  the  just. 

At  this  point,  one  of  the  guests  interrupted  his  dis- 
course, saying,  "Blessed  is  he  that  shall  eat  bread  in  the 
kingdom  of  God." 

The  motive  that  prompted  this  remark  is  evident. 
Our  Lord's  words  were  so  practical  and  so  personal  as  to 
interfere  with  the  comfort  of  the  host  and  his  guests. 
This  man  sought  to  relieve  the  tension  by  a  religious 
platitude.  He  sought  to  harmonize  the  company  by 
complimenting  our  Lord's  picture  of  the  ideal  feast,  the 
feast  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

In  response  to  this  remark  Jesus  gave  the  parable  of 
the  great  supper.  This  parable  was  a  warning  against 
pious  cant  and  self  righteous  complacency  of  the  descend- 
ents  of  Abraham.  God  had  prepared  the  great  supper, 
and,  in  the  Old  Testament  revelation  and  ordinances  had 
bidden  the  Jews,  and  especially  those  who  read  and  ex- 
pounded the  prophecies  and  interpreted  the  types,  but 
when  the  preparations  were  completed  and  the  servants 


324  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OE  GOD 

announced  the  feast,  those  who  had  enjoyed  the  highest 
privileges  refused  to  come.  They  assigned  different  rea- 
sons for  their  refusal,  but  the  reasons  were  essentially 
the  same  in  that  they  all  undervalued  the  feast  and  re- 
fused to  come  because  they  set  a  higher  value  on  some- 
thing else.  With  one  it  was  a  matter  of  business,  and  he 
said,  "I  have  bought  a  field ;"  with  another  it  was  a  mat- 
ter of  judgment,  and  he  said,  "I  have  bought  five  yoke  of 
oxen,  and  I  go  to  prove  them;"  with  another  it  was  a 
matter  of  pleasure,  and  he  said,  "I  have  married  a  wife, 
and  therefore  I  cannot  come ;"  but,  with  all,  the  real  ex- 
cuse was  they  did  not  see  anything  sufficiently  attractive 
in  the  feast.  They  did  not  reverence  the  host.  It  was  a 
vivid  picture  of  the  priests,  the  scribes,  the  Pharisees, 
the  rulers  of  the  Jewish  people,  as  they  rejected  Christ 
and  the  gospel.  They  were  dreaming  of  eating  bread  in 
the  kingdom  of  God,  but  were  choosing  the  world  and 
rejecting  the  bread  of  heaven. 

The  conclusion  of  the  parable  represents  the  servants 
as  going  out  into  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city,  they 
turn  from  the  leaders  and  the  most  highly  privileged  to 
the  common  people ;  and,  when  there  is  still  room,  they 
go  out  of  the  city,  away  from  the  highly  favoured  nation, 
even  to  the  gentiles,  persuading  and  constraining  them  to 
come  and  partake  of  the  feast,  and  these  eat  bread  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  while  those  who  were  first  bidden  are 
excluded. 

While  this  parable  had  its  first  application  to  those 
who  sat  at  meat  with  the  Master  in  the  Pharisee's  house, 
it  applies  to  all  who  are  ready  to  talk  of  the  blessedness 
of  eating  bread  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  neglect  their  opportunity. 

Luke's  account  of  our  Lord's  discourse  in  the  Phari- 
see's house  ends  abruptly,  and  gives  place  to  an  account 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    325 

of  an  address  to  a  great  multitude  who  were  following 
him.  To  this  multitude,  Jesus  said,  "If  any  man  cometh 
unto  me,  and  hateth  not  his  own  father,  and  mother,  and 
wife  and  children,  and  brethren  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his 
own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.  Whosoever  doth 
not  bear  his  cross,  and  come  after  me,  cannot  be  my  dis- 
ciple." 

It  seems  probable  that  the  multitude,  knowing  our 
Lord's  warning  to  the  Pharisees  and  other  highly  privi- 
leged classes,  may  have  based  their  hope  on  the  simple 
fact  that  they  had  not  enjoyed  the  highest  privileges  and 
had  not  made  the  greatest  professions.  There  is  a  warn- 
ing for  these  as  well  as  for  the  Pharisees,  and  Christ's 
words  leave  no  room  for  self  delusion.  If  any  man 
would  be  a  follower  of  Christ,  everything  else  must  be 
made  secondary.  To  the  labouring  and  heavy  laden, 
Christ  offered  rest;  but  he  did  not  lead  men  to  believe 
that  he  would  be  satisfied  with  any  half-hearted  service. 
He  demands  a  love  surpassing  our  love  for  father, 
mother,  wife,  children,  or  nearest  and  dearest  earthly 
friend.  No  one  could  become  a  true  disciple  who  would 
be  unwilling  to  make  any  sacrifice,  even  the  sacrifice  of 
his  own  life. 

Had  Jesus  been  a  mere  man,  such  a  demand  would 
have  been  most  unreasonable;  but,  being  the  Son  of  God, 
and  about  to  offer  up  his  own  life  for  his  people,  he  had 
the  highest  claims  on  his  followers.  In  this  address  to 
the  enthusiastic  but  fickle  multitude,  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit  was  applied  to  all  who  recklessly  professed  faith 
in  him  and  obedience  to  him.  He  warned  his  followers 
to  count  the  cost  as  carefully  as  the  man  who  would  build 
a  tower,  or  the  king  that  would  go  to  war.  He  declared 
plainly  that  a  man  must  renounce  all  that  he  had  in  order 
to  be  his  disciple,  and  that  disciples  without  this  degree  of 


326  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

consecration  were  salt  without  its  savour,  utterly  worth- 
less. 

To  his  own  disciples  and  to  others,  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  Jesus  revealed  the  righteousness  of  his  king- 
dom. Here  he  showed  to  the  multitude  a  life  that  is  ex- 
alted above  the  sensual  and  the  present.  These  words 
were  addressed  to  disciples  in  every  age.  To  be  a  Chris- 
tian is  not  merely  to  be  a  good  citizen  of  this  world,  a 
good  member  of  society ;  it  is  to  have  citizenship  in 
heaven,  to  live  above  the  world,  having  fellowship  with 
God  and  with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  fellowship  will 
purify  and  ennoble  every  earthly  relation,  but  it  will,  at 
the  same  time,  raise  men  above  all  earthly  relations. 
These  claims  of  Christ  are  warranted  only  by  the  fact 
that  he  was  one  with  the  Father,  the  very  Son  of  God. 

While  Jesus  was  warning  the  promiscuous  multitude 
against  underestimating  the  conditions  of  discipleship, 
the  scribes  and  Pharisees  were  murmuring  that  he  was 
receiving  sinners  and  eating  with  them.  As  we  read  the 
words  of  Jesus  to  the  multitude  we  realize  that  he  is 
claiming  equality  with  the  Father;  as  we  read  the  com- 
plaints of  the  Pharisees,  we  see  him  identified  with  suf- 
fering humanity,  an  infinitely  compassionate  Saviour, 
who  recognizes  publicans  and  sinners  as  his  brethren  with 
whom  he  mingles  as  friend  with  friend.  Locking  at  him 
from  the  two  points  we  see  both  perfect  divinity  and  per- 
fect humanity,  and  are  constrained  to  say,  Bcce  Dens! 
Ecce  Homo! 

In  the  answer  to  the  complaint  of  the  Pharisees  and 
scribes,  that  Jesus  received  sinners  and  ate  with  them, 
there  are  the  parables  of  the  lost  sheep,  the  lost  coin  and 
the  lost  son.  A  few  weeks  later,  when  the  same  com- 
plaint was  made  against  him  because  he  lodged  with  the 
publican,  Zaccheus,  Jesus  answered,  "The  Son  of  man 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    327 

came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost ;"  and  he 
may  have  said  the  same  in  connection  with  the  use  of  the 
parable  of  the  lost  sheep  on  a  different  occasion.  (Mat- 
thew 18:  11-14.) 

The  answer  by  parables  reveals  the  attitude  of  Christ 
toward  lost  sinners,  and  gives  so  satisfactory  a  reason 
for  his  receiving  sinners  and  mingling  with  them,  that  he 
does  not  need  to  say  anything  by  way  of  application.  If 
the  owner  of  one  hundred  sheep  would  leave  the  ninety 
and  nine  and  go  out  after  one  that  was  lost,  and  rejoice 
when  he  has  found  it,  was  it  a  strange  thing  that  he,  the 
good  shepherd,  the  Son  of  the  Heavenly  Father,  should 
seek  lost  men  and  bring  them  back  to  the  fold  of  God? 
Why  should  he  not  eat  with  sinners  if,  by  so  doing,  he 
could  save  them  ?  The  fact  that  they  were  lost  sinners  and 
needed  his  help  was  the  appeal  to  the  great  compassion 
of  the  Father  who  so  loved  the  world  as  to  send  his  only 
begotten  Son  as  the  good  Shepherd.  To  the  critical 
Pharisee,  Jesus  could  say,  "what  man  of  you  would  not 
seek  a  lost  sheep?"  and  the  lesson  is,  that  God  is  more 
deeply  interested  in  a  lost  man ;  for  there  is  joy  in  heaven 
over  one  sinner  that  repenteth.  This  parable  emphasizes 
the  fact  that  Christ's  great  mission  is  to  sinners,  to  the 
lost.  The  ninety  and  nine  are  left  for  a  time  that  one 
may  be  found,  and  there  is  more  joy  in  heaven  over  one 
sinner  that  repenteth  than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  per- 
sons who  need  no  repentance. 

Before  the  Christian  church  can  give  a  secondary  place 
to  the  work  of  seeking  and  saving  those  who  are  reckoned 
outcasts,  this  parable  must  be  eliminated. 

The  parable  of  the  lost  coin  illustrates  especially  the 
diligent  search.  As  the  woman  values  the  coin,  and 
searches  diligently  until  she  finds  it,  and  then  rejoices,  so 
God  in  Christ  searches  for  sinners  with  such  care  as  war- 


328  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

rants  mingling  with  sinners  in  order  to  save  them.  With 
lighted  lamp,  in  dark  places,  amidst  the  dust,  sweeping 
the  house,  the  woman  seeks  her  lost  coin ;  and,  in  like 
manner,  the  immaculate  Son  of  God  does  not  fail  to  come 
in  contact  with  defilement  and  sin  that  he  may  find  and 
save  that  more  precious  coin,  a  lost  soul.  In  God's  eyes 
the  value  of  an  immortal  soul,  created  in  God's  image,  is 
infinitely  greater  than  that  of  the  lost  coin.  Why,  there- 
fore, should  the  Pharisee  criticise  divine  condescension 
in  order  to  save  a  lost  man  ? 

In  the  parable  of  the  lost  son  the  interest  centers  in  the 
great  joy  at  his  restoration  or  home-coming.  There  is 
the  simple  story  of  the  younger  son's  desire  to  be  far 
from  the  restraints  and  limitations  of  a  good  home ;  of 
the  father's  granting  his  request  to  have  his  share  of  the 
inheritance  and  liberty  to  use  it  as  his  own;  of  his  de- 
parture to  a  distant  country ;  of  his  dissipation,  bad  com- 
panions, absolute  poverty,  degradation  and  misery;  of 
his  coming  to  himself,  thinking  of  his  father's  house;  of 
his  humble  penitence,  resolve  to  return,  and  his  resolu- 
tion carried  out. 

To  those  who  were  familiar  with  Jewish  life  this  part 
of  the  parable  would  present  a  very  realistic  picture,  but 
the  intense  pathos  is  fully  developed  when  the  loving 
father,  seeing  his  son  a  great  way  off,  is  moved  with  com- 
passion, runs  to  meet  him,  falls  on  his  neck,  kisses  him, 
and  the  son  says,  "Father,  I  have  sinned  against  heaven, 
and  in  thy  sight,  and  am  no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy 
son."  The  returning  prodigal  had  intended  to  ask  for 
the  place  of  a  hired  servant,  but  the  father's  intense,  im- 
petuous and  compassionate  love  prevents  this  request. 
He  calls  to  the  servants  to  bring  the  best  robe  and  put  it 
on  him,  to  put  a  ring  on  his  hand,  and  shoes  on  his  feet, 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    329 

to  kill  the  fatted  calf,  eat  and  make  merry,  because  the 
lost  has  been  found  and  the  dead  is  alive. 

Is  this  a  true  picture  of  the  emotions  and  actions  of  a 
loving  earthy  father  for  a  penitent  son  who  has  wasted 
his  inheritance  and  dishonoured  his  father's  name?  Is 
the  love  of  the  heavenly  Father  for  his  sinful  but  penitent 
children  less  than  that  of  an  earthly  father  ?  Did  not  the 
sacred  scriptures  of  these  scribes  and  Pharisees  teach 
them  that  "Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children  so  the 
Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him?"  If  there  could  be  joy 
in  heaven  over  the  penitent  sinner  why  should  the  Phari- 
sees object  to  Christ's  seeking  these  lost  ones? 

This  would  have  been  the  inference  from  the  parable 
if  it  had  ended  here.  But  it  does  not  end  here.  There 
was  an  elder  brother  in  the  home  who  had  no  part  in  the 
rejoicing.  He  had  not  been  longing  for  the  rescue  of  his 
sinful  brother,  and  when  he  learned  from  a  servant  the 
cause  of  such  rejoicing,  he  was  angry  and,  when  his 
father  entreated  him,  he  objected,  contrasting  his  own 
righteousness  with  his  brother's  sinfulness. 

The  parable  needed  no  application.  The  father's  at- 
titude toward  the  penitent  younger  son  was  the  attitude 
of  Christ  toward  sinners,  while  the  attitude  of  the  elder 
brother  was  that  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  as  they 
criticised  Christ.  It  is  not  necessary  to  say  that  the 
parable  does  not  approve  the  course  of  the  younger  son, 
nor  suggest  that  the  heavenly  Father  approves  of  the  sins 
of  his  penitent  children;  but  it  does  reveal  the  compas- 
sionate love  of  the  heavenly  Father  for  the  penitent  sin- 
ner who  has  dishonoured  God  and  brought  ruin  on  him- 
self. With  the  greatest  possible  emphasis  it  teaches  us 
that  God  is  a  loving,  compassionate  Father,  that  he  de- 
lights in  mercy. 


330  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

This  parable  is  for  all  time,  and  it  puts  the  stamp  of 
divine  condemnation  on  the  besetting  sin  of  ecclcsiasts. 
Cold,  compassionless  Christians  may  be  correct  in  their 
lives,  but  they  have  not  the  spirit  of  Christ  and  are  not 
true  disciples.  They  may  in  a  sense  be  the  servants,  but 
they  are  not  the  children  of  God.  Jesus  had  taught  his 
disciples  to  come  to  God  in  prayer,  saying,  "Our  Father," 
and  here  in  this  parable  he  seeks  to  show  scribes  and 
Pharisees  that  God  is  the  loving,  heavenly  Father  and  not 
a  compassionless  judge. 

In  the  gospel  by  Luke  the  parable  of  the  lost  son  is  fol- 
lowed by  the  parable  of  the  unjust  steward,  but  there  is 
an  indication  that  some  time  may  have  elapsed ;  for, 
while  the  parable  of  the  lost  son  was  addressed  to  the 
Pharisees,  the  parable  of  the  unjust  steward  was  spoken 
to  the  disciples. 

This  parable  has  been  the  subject  of  more  controversy 
than  any  other  in  the  gospels.  The  steward  is  accused 
of  wasting  his  master's  goods,  and,  when  called  on  for  a 
reckoning,  does  not  even  claim  that  the  accusation  is 
false ;  but  he  does,  on  the  other  hand,  before  he  is  ex- 
cluded from  the  stewardship,  enter  into  a  conspiracy  with 
his  master's  creditors  to  defraud  his  master  and  give 
them  the  benefits  of  the  fraud,  so  that  they  will  befriend 
him  when  he  is  excluded  from  the  stewardship.  Our 
Lord  does  not  commend  this  act  of  the  steward,  but,  in 
the  parable,  he  represents  the  master  who  has  been  de- 
frauded as  commending  the  wisdom  or  shrewdness  of 
the  steward.  This  would  not  of  itself  create  any  real 
difficulty ;  for,  while  no  man  likes  to  be  robbed,  it  is  not 
an  uncommon  thing  for  men  who  have  been  robbed  to 
commend  the  skill  and  shrewdness  of  the  robber.  The 
real  difficulty  presents  itself  when  we  hear  our  Lord  say- 
ing, "The  sons  of  this  world  are  for  their  own  generation 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    331 

wiser  than  the  children  of  light.  And  I  say  unto  you, 
Make  to  yourselves  friends  by  means  of  the  mammon  of 
unrighteousness ;  that  when  it  shall  fail,  they  may  re- 
ceive you  into  everlasting  tabernacles." 

Without  entering  at  length  into  the  discussion  of  the 
questions  that  arise,  we  suggest  a  possible  explanation. 
This  parable  was  spoken  to  those  who  were  recognized 
as  disciples,  in  distinction  from  the  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
and  it  was  more  or  less  closely  connected  with  our  Lord's 
answer  to  Pharisaic  criticism  of  his  mingling  with  sin- 
ners. The  man  in  the  parable,  who  is  defrauded  by  his 
steward,  being  one  of  the  children  of  this  world,  and,  not 
looking  at  his  steward's  act  from  the  standpoint  of  an 
enlightened  conscience,  was  not  so  shocked  by  the  dis- 
honesty as  to  be  unable  to  admire  the  shrewdness. 
Moreover,  he  may  have  profited  in  time  past  by  the  un- 
scrupulous shrewdness  of  his  steward. 

Our  Lord,  on  the  other  hand,  saw  all  men  as  stewards 
of  God,  and  not  real  owners  of  anything.  He  saw,  too, 
that  all  were  unfaithful,  wasting  their  Lord's  goods^  and 
acting  as  though  they  were  absolute  owners  instead  of 
stewards.  He  does  not  commend  their  unfaithfulness, 
but  he  would  have  them  prepare  to  render  their  account 
to  their  Lord,  and  make  provision  for  the  future  as  wise- 
ly as  the  children  of  this  world  do  when  they  are  con- 
sidering their  material  interests.  He  would  have  them 
use  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  not  to  provide  lux- 
uries for  themselves  in  the  present,  but  to  bear  the  bur- 
dens, promote  the  welfare,  and  secure  the  friendship  of 
their  fellow  men.  If  they  did  not  use  honestly  in  the 
service  of  their  fellows  the  worldly  wealth  with  which 
they  had  been  entrusted,  how  could  God  entrust  them 
with  the  true  riches  ?  It  is  possible,  too,  that  he  suggests 
here  how  worldly  wealth,  or  the  mammon  of  unrighteous- 


ZZ2  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ness,  may,  by  deeds  of  charity,  be  transmuted  into  true 
riches. 

Apart  from  the  questions  of  Christian  casuistry  that 
may  be  raised,  the  whole  parable  emphasizes  the  fact  that 
God  is  the  real  owner,  and  that  men  are  only  stewards; 
that  they  must  not  serve  and  trust  mammon  instead  of 
serving  and  trusting  God,  and  that  they  must  not  seek  to 
divide  their  allegiance  between  God  and  mammon.  In 
the  light  of  this  parable,  all  thought  of  worldly  wealth 
that  does  not  regard  it  as  a  divine  trust,  seems  a  service 
of  mammon. 

The  parable  of  the  unfaithful  steward  was  addressed 
to  the  disciples,  but  it  was  heard  by  the  Pharisees,  who 
were  lovers  of  money,  and  they  scoffed  at  Jesus.  To 
their  scoffs  he  replied  saying,  "Ye  are  they  that  justify 
yourselves  in  the  sight  of  men,  but  God  knoweth  your 
hearts ;  for  that  which  is  exalted  among  men  is  an  abomi- 
nation in  the  sight  of  God."  The  Pharisees  were  con- 
demning publicans  and  sinners,  but  they  were,  at  the 
same  time,  loving  and  serving  the  mammon  of  unright- 
eousness. They  were  zealous  for  and  boasted  of  the  law 
and  condemned  publicans  and  sinners,  but  they  had  no 
word  of  rebuke  for  Herod,  the  miserable  adulterer  and 
murderer  of  John  the  Baptist.  They  were  zealous  for 
law,  but,  for  sin  in  high  places,  for  gilded  iniquity,  they 
had  no  condemnation. 

This  rebuke  of  the  Pharisees  is  followed  and  empha- 
sized by  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus.  For 
suffering  poverty,  the  Pharisees  had  no  compassion ;  for 
gilded  crime,  they  had  no  condemnation ;  and  in  this 
parable  Jesus  threw  on  the  rich  and  the  poor  the  light  of 
the  eternal  years.  He  did  not  intimate  that  the  rich  were 
always  vicious,  and  the  poor  always  virtuous ;  for  he  in- 
troduced Abraham,  a  rich  man,  with  Lazarus,  a  poor 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    333 

man,  borne  by  angels  to  Abraham's  bosom.  He  only 
taught  that  God's  estimate  of  men  is  not  influenced  by 
their  poverty  or  by  their  wealth. 

In  the  parable,  the  rich  man  is  clothed  in  purple  and 
fine  linen  and  fares  sumptuously  every  day,  but  he  does 
not  realize  that  wealth  is  a  sacred  trust  to  be  used  for  the 
benefit  of  others,  as  well  as  for  himself.  No  question  is 
raised  as  to  how  he  came  to  be  the  possessor  of  great 
wealth  or  how  Lazarus  came  to  be  so  poor.  One  is  very 
rich  and  enjoys  every  luxury  that  wealth  can  furnish; 
the  oth€r  is  very  poor  and  helpless,  and  they  are  brought 
in  contact  with  each  other;  but  the  rich  man  does  not 
move  a  finger,  nor  make  the  slightest  effort  to  help  the 
suffering  fellow  man  that  shares  with  his  dogs  the  crumbs 
that  fall  from  his  table.  Neither  the  rich  man's  wealth 
nor  the  poor  man's  poverty  can  prevent  their  dying. 
The  rich  man  is  buried.  What  becomes  of  the  dishon- 
oured body  of  the  poor  man  we  are  not  told,  but  we  are 
told  that  he,  the  real  man,  is  carried  by  angels  to  Abra- 
ham's bosom,  and  that  the  rich  man  is  in  Hades,  and  that 
he  is  in  torment.  Their  conditions  are  reversed.  The 
rich  man  does  not  appeal  to  Lazarus ;  he  has  not  yet  lost 
his  earthly  delusion,  that  the  poor  man  could  not  be  any- 
thing but  the  servant  of  the  rich,  and  he,  therefore,  ap- 
peals to  Abraham  to  send  Lazarus  to  minister  to  him  and 
relieve  his  torments.  But  Abraham  answered,  first, 
"Son,  remember  that  thou  in  thy  life  time  receivedst  thy 
good  things,  and  Lazarus  in  like  manner  evil  things,  but 
now  here  he  is  comforted  and  thou  are  tormented."  But 
he  answers  also,  "Besides  all  this  between  us  and  you 
there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed,  that  they  which  would  pass 
from  here  to  you  may  not  be  able,  and  that  none  may  pass 
over  from  thence  to  us." 


334  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

When  Lazarus  lay  at  the  rich  man's  gate  there  was  an 
impassable  gulf  between  them,  but  that  gulf  was  created 
by  the  rich  man's  selfishness  and  pride.  But  for  his 
selfishness  and  pride,  he  could  have  made  to  himself 
friends  by  using  his  wealth  in  the  service  of  God  and  in 
doing  good  to  men ;  but  now  the  gulf  is  fixed  by  divine 
justice,  and  it  is  too  late  to  secure  the  aid  of  Lazarus. 
No  word  of  man  can  add  to  the  vividness  of  this  picture 
or  make  its  lessons  plainer  or  more  impressive. 

The  remainder  of  the  parable  is  hardly  less  impressive, 
but  it  presents  more  difficult  problems.  In  his  treatment 
of  Lazarus  the  rich  man  had  seemed  utterly  regardless 
of  the  sufferings  of  others ;  but,  now,  in  his  misery,  he 
thinks  of  his  five  brethren  who  were  living  as  he  had 
lived,  and  he  beseeches  Abraham  to  send  Lazarus  to 
warn  them  so  as  to  prevent  them  from  coming  to  that 
place  of  torment.  To  this  Abraham  replies,  "They  have 
Moses  and  the  prophets,  let  them  hear  them."  The  rich 
man  is  not  silenced  by  this  answer  to  his  petition,  but 
when  he  offers  the  plea  that  if  one  went  to  his  brethren 
from  the  dead  they  would  believe,  Abraham  answered, 
"If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither  will 
they  be  persuaded  if  one  rise  from  the  dead." 

Are  we  to  infer  from  this  part  of  the  parable  that  they 
who  have  gone  beyond  the  "fixed  gulf"  still  retain  an  in- 
terest in  and  affection  for  their  friends  that  would  make 
them  forgetful  of  their  own  sufferings  and  solicitous  for 
the  welfare  of  others?  Do  we  find  here  a  ray  of  hope 
that  the  "fixed  gulf"  may  some  time  be  crossed?  These 
questions  we  cannot  answer.  We  may,  however,  find  in 
this  part  of  the  parable  a  great  practical  truth  that  should 
not  be  overlooked.  It  is  this :  Men  need  no  better  reve- 
lation than  God  has  given  in  the  Bible.  It  is  a  delusion 
to  think  that  if  our  friends  and  dear  ones  could  com? 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS    335 

back  from  Hades  and  tell  what  they  had  seen,  faith 
would  be  easy.  The  scribes  and  Pharisees  were  not  con- 
vinced by  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus;  nor  were  they 
persuaded  by  the  resurrection  of  their  crucified  Lord. 
If  men  believe  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  if  men  be- 
lieve not  the  gospel,  they  need  not  expect  their  acquaint- 
ances to  come  back  to  them  from  the  dead. 

This  whole  parable  throws  the  bright  light  of  the 
eternal  years  on  all  the  questions  of  Christian  philan- 
thropy. A  well  known  rich  man  boasted  of  the  wisdom 
of  his  philanthropic  schemes,  because  he  did  not  try  to 
help  the  "submerged  tenth"  of  the  human  race.  Well, 
Lazarus  belonged  to  the  "submerged  tenth"  that  Phari- 
sees, ancient  and  modern,  despise;  but  Christ  came  to 
save  the  lost,  and  our  heavenly  Father  sent  his  angels  to 
carry  the  despised  Lazarus  to  Abraham's  bosom,  while 
the  rich  man  cried  in  vain  from  beyond  the  "fixed  gulf." 

Having  emphasized  his  answer  to  the  scoffs  of  the 
Pharisees  by  the  parable  of  the  rich  man  and  Lazarus, 
Jesus  turned  to  his  disciples,  with  a  most  impressive 
warning,  as  he  said,  "It  is  impossible  but  that  occasions 
of  stumbling  should  come;  but  woe  unto  him  through 
whom  they  come.  It  were  better  for  him  that  a  mill- 
stone were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  he  were  thrown 
into  the  sea,  rather  than  that  he  should  cause  one  of  these 
little  ones  to  stumble.  Take  heed  to  yourselves ;  if  thy 
brother  sin,  rebuke  him ;  and  if  he  repent,  forgive  him. 
And  if  he  sin  against  thee  seven  times  in  the  day,  and 
seven  times  turn  again  to  thee,  saying,  I  repent;  thou 
shalt  forgive  him." 

Under  the  term  little  ones  our  Lord  probably  included 
little  children,  and  all  the  humble  and  more  dependent 
or  less  intelligent  who  were  easily  deceived  and  discour- 
aged.   The  little  ones  to  whom  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 


336  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

were  becoming  stumbling  blocks  were  the  publicans  and 
sinners.  The  warning  is  especially  against  that  self- 
righteous,  censorious,  unforgiving  spirit  that  rejoices  in 
condemning  others,  and  hence  the  exhortation  to  forgive 
the  sins  or  wrongs  of  others  when  they  repeiit,  even 
though  they  repeat  the  sin  seven  times  in  the  day.  The 
exhortation  is  not  addressed  to  the  Pharisees,  but  it  grew 
out  of  the  thought  of  their  cold,  compassionless,  cen- 
sorious spirit  as  it  was  manifested  toward  publicans  and 
sinners. 

When  the  apostles  heard  the  exhortation  they  seemed 
overwhelmed  with  the  sense  of  their  own  responsibility, 
and  they  united  in  the  petition  to  the  Lord  to  increase 
their  faith.  They  seemed  to  feel  as  Paul  did  when  he 
exclaimed,  "Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?"  How 
could  they  be  so  wise,  so  forgiving,  so  like  their  Master 
that  they  would  never  cause  others  to  stumble?  They 
felt  too  their  own  weakness  and  insufificiency  and  hence 
their  spontaneous,  united  prayer,  "Increase  our  faith." 

To  this  prayer  Jesus  gave  his  strong  approval,  as  he 
said,  "If  ye  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  ye 
would  say  unto  this  sycamore  tree,  be  thou  rooted  up, 
and  be  thou  planted  in  the  sea,  and  it  would  have  obeyed 
you."  He  would  deepen  the  conviction  that  faith  was 
the  instrument  of  their  power,  that  by  faith  they  were 
linked  with  the  omnipotent  One,  and  that  nothing  would 
be  too  hard  for  them.  Nevertheless,  he  warned  them 
that  the  possibility  of  their  being  clothed  with  divine 
power  should  make  them  humble,  since  they  were  but 
servants  who,  when  they  had  done  all  these  things  that 
were  commanded  them,  were  only  meeting  their  just  ob- 
ligations. To  his  own  disciples  and  apostles,  as  well  as 
to  the  Pharisees,  by  percept  and  by  example,  Jesus  Christ 
commended  the  virtue  of  humility.     Pride,  unbelief  and 


BEFORE  THE  RAISING  OE  LAZARUS    337 

discontent  disturbed  the  peace  of  heaven  and  drove  out 
Satan ;  pride,  unbelief  and  discontent  destroyed  the  happi- 
ness of  Eden  and  drove  man  out  of  the  earthly  Paradise ; 
humble,  trustful,  obedient  faith  is  the  one  condition  of 
man's  salvation  and  eternal  well  being  and  usefulness  in 
God's  service.  Without  true  faith  in  God,  man  is  hope- 
less and  helpless,  but  with  faith  all  things  are  possible 
to  him. 

Before  leaving  this  general  sketch  of  our  Lord's  teach- 
ings and  movements  it  might  not  be  amiss  to  say  that  the 
parables  of  the  grain  of  mustard  seed  (Matthew  13:31- 
32.  Mark  4:30-32)  ;  the  parable  of  the  leaven,  (Mat- 
thew 13  :  33)  ;  the  parable  of  the  great  supper  (Matthew 
22:1-14);  the  discussions  concerning  faith  and  merit 
(Matthew  17:20);  offenses  (Matthew  18:6-15);  fol- 
lowing Christ  (Matthew  10:37-38)  ;  and  the  apostrophe 
to  Jerusalem  (Matthew  23:37-39)  are  very  nearly  iden- 
tical with  the  parables  and  discourses  recorded  by  Luke ; 
but  it  seems  less  difficult,  in  view  of  all  the  known  facts, 
to  regard  these  discourses  and  parables  as  repeated  on 
different  occasions  than  to  attempt  to  identify  them. 


LI 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS  AND  DEPARTURE 
TO  EPHRAIM 

John  11:25.    "Jesus  said  unto  her,  I  am  the  Resurrection  and 
the  Life." 
(John  11:  I-S4.) 

IN  the  gospel  by  John  the  account  of  our  Lord's  dis- 
courses at  the  feast  of  dedication  is  followed  by  the 
statement  that  Jesus  went  away  again  beyond  Jor- 
dan where  John  was  at  first  baptizing  and  that  many  be- 
lieved on  him  there.  John  then  tells  of  the  raising  of 
Lazarus,  the  deliberations  of  the  sanhedrin,  the  departure 
to  the  wilderness  city  of  Ephraim  and  the  return  to 
Bethany  six  days  before  the  passcver. 

It  was  at  least  four  months  from  the  feast  of  the  dedi- 
cation to  the  feast  of  the  passover,  and  this  brief  state- 
ment covers  this  entire  period.  Our  only  record  of  what 
Jesus  did  during  this  time  is  found,  Luke  17:  11-19:28, 
Mat.  19:1-20:3  and  Mark  10:1-52.  Whether  these 
events  occurred  before  or  after  the  raising  of  Lazarus 
is  not  known,  but  there  seems  to  be  sufficient  reason  for 
placing  them  after  that  event.  We  therefore  take  up  the 
raising  of  Lazarus  at  this  point. 

When  Jesus  was  in  Perea  he  was  told  by  the  Jews  that 
Herod  Antipas  would  kill  him  if  he  did  not  go  away. 
Both  Jesus  and  his  disciples  knew  very  well  that  he  was 
safer  in  Herod's  jurisdiction  than  h€  would  be  in  Jeru- 
salem, for,  when  he  left  the  city  of  Jerusalem  after  the 

338 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS  339 

feast  of  tabernacles  and  after  the  feast  of  the  dedication, 
the  Jews  took  up  stones  to  stone  him.  Moreover  he  had 
already  said  that  it  was  not  possible  for  a  prophet  to  per- 
ish outside  of  Jerusalem.  Nevertheless,  when  death  in- 
vaded the  home  of  his  dear  friends  in  Bethany  he  disre- 
garded the  danger  and  came  to  their  relief. 

This  miracle  is  only  second  in  importance  to  the  mira- 
cle of  Christ's  own  resurrection.  Jesus  had  raised  from 
the  dead  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain  and  the  daughter 
of  Jairus,  but  very  little  is  known  of  either  of  these  either 
before  or  afterwards,  and  the  accounts  of  their  being 
brought  to  life  are  very  brief.  On  the  other  hand,  Laza- 
rus was  well  known  and  the  account  of  his  being  raised 
from  the  dead  is  given  in  detail.  .  It  was,  not  only  a  very 
great  miracle,  but  a  luminous  acted  parable  and  the  words 
spoken  by  Jesus  at  this  time  have  reechoed  down  through 
all  the  ages  since. 

It  seems  very  remarkable  that  so  great  an  event  should 
not  be  noticed  by  Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  and,  while 
many  explanations  have  been  given,  the  most  reasonable 
seems  to  be  that  the  synoptic  writers  confined  themselves 
nearly  entirely  to  the  Galilean  and  Perean  ministries.  It 
might  be  said  also  in  passing  that  its  omission  by  the 
synoptic  writers  is  a  convincing  refutation  of  the  claim 
that  John  wrote  merely  to  corroborate  the  other  writers. 

John's  account  of  this  miracle  is  adapted  to  interest 
and  surprise  the  reader.  Jesus  was  in  Perea,  and,  when 
Lazarus  became  very  dangerously  ill,  the  sisters  did  not 
ask  Jesus  to  come  to  them  at  the  risk  of  his  own  life,  but 
they  did  send  a  message  saying,  "he  whom  thou  lovest  is 
sick."  When  Jesus  received  the  message  he  said,  "This 
sickness  is  not  unto  death,  but  for  the  glory  of  God,  that 
the  Son  of  God  may  be  glorified  thereby."  Though  he 
loved,  not  only  Lazarus,  but  the  two  anxious  sisters,  he 


340  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

made  no  move  toward  helping  them.  He  knew  very  well 
that  Lazarus  was  passing  through  the  dark  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  and  that  the  hearts  of  the  two  sisters 
were  breaking,  yet  he  remained  where  he  was  two  whole 
days.  At  the  end  of  the  second  day  he  said  to  his  dis- 
ciples, "Let  us  go  into  Judea  again."  The  disciples  pro- 
tested strongly,  saying,  "Rabbi,  the  Jews  were  but  now 
seeking  to  stone  thee  and  goest  thou  thither  again?" 
Jesus  answered  their  objection  by  saying  that  there  were 
twelve  hours  in  the  day.  He  probably  meant  that  this 
was  his  day  for  work  and  therefore  the  question  of  per- 
sonal danger  must  not  interfere  with  his  work.  Then  he 
said,  "Our  friend  Lazarus  has  fallen  asleep,  but  I  go  that 
I  may  awake  him  out  of  his  sleep."  The  disciples 
thought  that  Jesus  spoke  of  taking  rest  in  sleep,  and  that 
it  was  an  indication  that  Lazarus  would  recover,  but 
Jesus,  had  no  such  meaning,  and  said  to  them  plainly 
"Lazarus  is  dead." 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  Jesus  would  express 
regret  that  he  could  not  be  with  the  afflicted  sisters  in 
their  great  sorrow,  but,  instead  of  doing  so,  he  said,  "I 
am  glad  for  your  sakes  that  I  was  not  there,  to  the  end 
that  you  might  believe ;  nevertheless,  let  us  go  to  him." 
At  this  point,  Thomas,  despondent  and  hopeless  as  usual, 
said,  "Let  us  go  also  that  we  may  die  with  him."  He 
regarded  our  Lord's  going  so  near  to  Jerusalem  as  un- 
wise and  suicidal,  but  he  would  not  forsake  him. 

When  Jesus  came  to  Bethany  he  found  that  Lazarus 
had  been  dead  four  days  and  that  many  Jews  from  Jeru- 
salem were  seeking  to  comfort  the  sorrowing  sisters. 
When  Martha  heard  that  Jesus  was  coming  she  went  out 
to  meet  him,  but  Mary  remained  in  the  house.  When 
Martha  met  Jesus  outside  the  village  she  said  sadly  and 
possibly  reproachfully,  "Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  here 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS  341 

my  brother  had  not  died."  It  was  but  the  expression  of 
the  sad  thought  that  so  often  unbidden  comes  to  the  mind 
of  bereaved  friends,  the  thought  that  it  might  have  been 
otherwise.  Martha's  sad  cry  had  in  it  an  element  of 
hope,  for  she  added,  "Even  now  I  know  that  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  ask  of  God,  God  will  give  it  thee."  She  had 
the  mistaken  idea  that  the  death  of  her  brother  was  the 
result  of  her  Lord's  absence,  but  she  thought  that  it 
might  not  still  be  too  late.  She  had  been  saying,  as  the 
life  of  her  brother  was  ebbing  away,  that  while  there  was 
life  there  was  hope.  When  she  saw  Jesus,  she  seemed  to 
feel  that  hope  might  continue  even  when  life  was  extinct. 
To  this  cry  Jesus  replied,  "Thy  brother  shall  rise  again." 
Martha  answered,  "I  know  that  he  shall  rise  again  in  the 
resurrection  at  the  last  day."  She  had  a  confused  hope 
of  a  final  resurrection,  but  she  needed  comfort  in  her 
present  loneliness.  Her  hope  of  the  resurrection  was  not 
so  clear  and  definite  as  to  be  the  real  substance  of  the 
thing  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen ;  and 
Jesus  met  her  felt  need  in  the  words  that  have  reechoed 
through  all  succeeding  ages,  when  he  said,  "I  am  the  res- 
urrection and  the  life ;  he  that  believeth  on  me,  though 
he  die,  yet  shall  he  live ;  and  whosoever  liveth  and  be- 
lieveth on  me  shall  never  die."  How  far  Martha  was 
able  to  understand  the  tremendous  import  and  the  defi- 
nite meaning  of  these  wonderful  words,  we  do  not  know, 
but  they  deeply  impressed  her,  and  they  helped  her,  for, 
after  saying,  "I  have  believed  that  thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  that  cometh  into  the  world,"  she  went 
and  called  her  sister  Mary  secretly,  saying,  "The  Master 
has  come  and  calleth  for  thee." 

Jesus  had  not  yet  come  into  the  village,  and  he  re- 
mained where  he  was  after  Martha  left  him  to  go  to  her 
sister.     As  soon  as  Mary  heard  the  message  she  came 


342  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

quickly,  giving  no  explanation  to  her  companions  as  to 
where  she  was  going.  When  she  saw  Jesus  she  fell  at 
his  feet,  exclaiming,  "Lord  if  thou  hadst  been  here  my 
brother  had  not  died."  When  Jesus  saw  her  weeping 
and  saw  the  weeping  friends  that  followed  her,  he  was 
greatly  moved,  and  said,  "Where  have  ye  laid  him?" 
The  sisters  said,  "Lord  come  and  see."  As  Jesus  went 
to  the  tomb  he  wept,  and  the  Jews  seeing  this  evidence  of 
love  said,  "Could  not  this  man  who  opened  the  eyes  of 
the  blind,  have  caused  that  this  man  also  should  not  die?" 
These  Jews  had  probably  witnessed  the  healing  of  the 
blind  man,  and  were  therefore,  more  impressed  by  it  than 
by  the  reports  of  his  raising  the  daughter  of  Jairus  in  far 
off  Capernaum,  or  his  raising  the  son  of  the  widow  in  the 
distant  village  of  Nain.  They  could  join  with  the  sor- 
rowing sisters  in  thinking  of  what  Jesus  could  have  done 
if  he  had  been  there  before  Lazarus  died,  but,  now,  it 
seemed  too  late,  and,  as  they  came  to  the  tomb,  they  had 
no  hope.  Martha  thought  it  was  too  late  to  even  look  on 
the  face  of  the  dead  and  objected  when  Jesus  bade  them 
remove  the  stone  that  closed  the  cave  where  the  body  had 
been  buried,  saying,  "He  hath  been  dead  four  days." 

There  seemed  to  be  in  every  mind,  except  that  of  the 
Master,  a  sense  of  utter  helplessness.  They  were  in  the 
presence  of  death,  the  universal  conqueror  of  humanity, 
and  they  had  no  hope  that  his  work  could  be  undone. 
Jesus  mingled  his  tears  with  theirs  as  though  he,  too, 
were  hopeless.  But  it  was  not  so.  His  tears  were  not  a 
confession  of  helplessness,  for  he  replied  to  Martha's  ob- 
jection, "Said  I  not  unto  thee,  that,  if  thou  believedst, 
thou  shouldest  see  the  glory  of  God?"  His  words  seemed 
to  kindle  hope,  and  they  removed  the  stone.  What 
followed  can  only  find  adequate  description  in  the  words 
of  the  evangelist,  as  he  says,  "Jesus  lifted  up  his  eyes, 


The  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS  343 

and  said,  Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  heardest  me. 
And  I  know  that  thou  hear'st  me  always ;  but  because  of 
the  multitude  which  standeth  around  I  said  it,  that  they 
may  believe  that  thou  didst  send  me.  And  when  he  had 
thus  spoken,  he  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  Lazarus,  come 
forth.  He  that  was  dead  came  forth,  bound  hand  and 
foot  with  grave  clothes;  and  his  face  was  bound  about 
with  a  napkin.  Jesus  saith  unto  them,  Loose  him  and 
let  him  go." 

Many  of  the  Jews  who  saw  this  miracle  believed  on 
Jesus.  It  seemed  to  them  a  most  conclusive  proof  of  his 
divine  power.  The  opening  of  the  eyes  of  one  who  had 
been  born  blind  was  a  convincing  proof  that  Jesus  was 
indeed  the  Christ;  but  this  miracle  seemed  the  crowning 
evidence  of  the  truth  of  alt  his  claims.  It  was  witnessed 
by  a  large  company.  Lazarus  had  been  dead  four  days. 
Jesus  did  not  touch  even  the  stone  that  enclosed  the 
sepulchre,  but  he  did  in  the  audience  of  all,  commune 
with  God  the  Father,  and  then,  with  a  loud  voice,  he  did 
speak  the  words  of  omnipotence  and  the  dead  man  heard 
his  voice  and  obeyed.  If  any  miracle  of  power  would 
warrant  faith  in  the  miracle-worker,  surely  this  miracle 
was  sufificient,  and  unbelief  was  irrational. 

For  all  who  saw  it,  the  raising  of  Lazarus  was  a  con- 
vincing and  overwhelming  proof  that  Jesus  was  what  he 
claimed  to  be,  the  Christ.  Nevertheless,  for  disciples  in 
other  ages,  this  miracle  is  a  great  luminous,  acted  parable 
and  designed  and  adapted  to  throw  light  on  many  difficult 
problems.  As  we  see  the  Son  of  God  staying  two  days  in 
Perea  while  his  beloved  friends  are  in  agony  in  Bethany; 
as  we  hear  him  say,  "This  sickness  is  not  unto  death,  but 
for  the  glory  of  God ;"  as  we  hear  him  say  again,  "I  am 
glad  I  was  not  there,"  we  may  learn  how  God  looks  upon 
the  sufferings  of  his  people,  and  why  he  permits  them  to 


344  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

suffer.  Jesus  permitted  his  friends  to  suffer  for  the  good 
of  others,  in  order  that  other  men  and  women  in  all  com- 
ing ages  might  have  an  object  lesson,  and  might  hear  the 
wondrous  words,  "I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life." 
The  great  mystery  of  suffering  was  not  solved  by  this 
resurrection  to  mortal  life,  but  by  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  to  immortal  life;  and  the  solution  of  the  problem 
can  only  be  understood  in  the  great  hereafter ;  neverthe- 
less this  miracle  enables  all  the  children  of  God,  even 
while  they  are  in  this  world,  to  see  why  God  permits 
those  whom  he  loves  with  an  infinite  love,  to  suffer  the 
deepest  distresses  while  he  seems  to  hide  his  face  from 
them.  The  Son  of  God  loved  the  family  at  Bethany  and 
mingled  his  tears  with  theirs,  yet  he  did  not  come  at  once 
to  their  relief.  He  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day  and  for- 
ever. 

This  great  miracle,  so  near  to  Jerusalem,  witnessed  by 
so  many  people,  perplexed  and  alarmed  the  chief  priests 
and  Pharisees,  and  they  called  a  meeting  of  the  sanhedrin 
to  decide  what  should  be  done.  They  admitted  that 
Jesus  had  done  many  signs  and  they  feared  an  uprising 
of  the  people  to  proclaim  him  King.  When  the  Jewish 
council  was  in  doubt,  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest,  with  a 
haughty  air  of  superior  wisdom,  came  forward  with  the 
politic  but  diabolical  advice  to  murder  Jesus,  saying,  "It 
is  expedient  for  us  that  one  man  die  for  the  people  and 
that  the  whole  nation  perish  not." 

The  evangelist  says  that  being  high  priest  Caiaphas 
prophesied  that  Jesus  should  die,  not  only  for  that  nation, 
but  for  all  the  children  of  God  scattered  abroad  amongst 
all  nations.  This,  no  doubt,  means  that  Caiaphas  un- 
consciously used  words  that  were  a  prophecy  of  the  real 
vicarious  death  of  Jesus. 


THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS  345 

Vicarious  sacrifice  may  be  viewed  from  two  points  that 
are  as  far  apart  as  heaven  and  hell.  The  vicarious  sacri- 
fice of  Jesus  Christ  when  he  died  for  his  people,  as  God 
reveals  it,  was  his  loving  self  sacrifice  as  he  chose  to  be 
wounded  for  the  transgressions  of  his  people.  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son. 
Jesus'  vicarious  atonement  was  prompted  by  his  own  love 
that  constrained  him  to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  people. 
It  was  the  unique  offering  of  divine  compassion  for  lost 
humanity. 

Caiaphas'  idea  of  vicarious  sacrifice  was  absolutely  dif- 
ferent. It  was  the  offspring  of  diabolical  selfishness  that 
would  murder  the  innocent  on  the  selfish  plea  of  self 
preservation  and  political  expediency.  Alas  that  he 
should  have  so  many  followers !  Whether  he  know  it  or 
not,  every  man  who  would  ignore  justice  and  sacrifice 
the  rights  of  the  innocent,  in  things  great  or  small,  on  the 
plea  of  expediency,  is  a  disciple  of  Caiaphas. 


LII 


FROM  THE  RAISING  OF  LAZARUS  UNTIL  THE 
COMING  TO  JERICHO 

John  11:54-  "J^sus  therefore  walked  no  more  openlj-  among 
the  Jews,  but  departed  thence  into  the  country  near  to  the  wilder- 
ness, into  a  city  called  Ephraim ;  and  there  he  tarried  with  the 
disciples."  , 

(Matthew  19:  1-20:28;   Mark  10:  1-45;  Luke  17:  11-18:34.) 

HAVING  given  an  account  of  the  raising  of  Laza- 
rus and  the  meeting  of  the  sanhedrin,  John  goes 
on  to  say,  "Jesus  therefore  walked  no  more 
openly  among  the  Jews,  but  departed  thence  into  the 
country  near  to  the  wilderness  into  a  city  called  Ephraim, 
and  there  he  tarried  with  the  disciples."  Then,  in  direct 
connection,  he  says,  "Now,  the  feast  of  the  passover  was 
at  hand  and  many  went  up  to  Jerusalem  out  of  the  coun- 
try before  the  passover,  to  purify  themselves.  They 
sought  therefore  for  Jesus,  and  spake  one  with  another, 
as  they  stood  in  the  temple,  What  think  ye  ?  That  he  will 
come  to  the  feast?"  If  this  were  our  only  source  of  in- 
formation we  might  assume  that  Ephraim  was  near  to 
Jerusalem,  but  other  evangelists  say  that  Jesus  returned 
to  Bethany  by  way  of  Jericho,  and  probably  by  the  bor- 
ders of  Galilee  and  Samaria  (Luke  17:11).  It  is  evi- 
dent, therefore,  that  this  unknown  Ephraim  was  proba- 
bly somewhere  in  Perea. 

How  long  our  Lord  tarried  with  his  disciples  in  this 
unknown  city,  and  what  he  did  there  is  not  known,  but  it 

346 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  347 

seems  probable  that  the  time  was  measured  by  days  or 
weeks,  rather  than  by  months,  and  that  it  was  devoted  to 
preparation  for  the  last  great  tragedy  that  was  to  be  en- 
acted at  Jerusalem.  It  is  probable  also  that  the  events 
recorded,  Luke  17:11-18-34,  took  place  after  our  Lord 
left  this  quiet  retreat  as  he  journeyed  on  his  way  to  Jeru- 
salem. 

On  the  way  from  Ephraim  to  the  passover  Jesus  en- 
tered into  a  certain  village  where  he  was  met  by  ten  lepers, 
who  stood  afar  off,  and  cried,  "Master,  have  mercy  upon 
us;"  Jesus  answered  their  appeal  by  saying,  "Go  show 
yourselves  to  the  priests."  The  lepers  all  obeyed,  and,  as 
they  went  to  find  the  priests,  they  were  all  cleansed.  One 
of  them,  when  he  realized  that  he  was  cleansed,  turned 
back  and  with  a  loud  voice  glorified  God,  and  falling  at 
Jesus'  feet,  thanked  him.  This  one  was  a  Samaritan, 
and  Jesus  said,  "Were  not  the  ten  cleansed?  but  where 
are  the  nine?  Were  there  none  found  that  returned  to 
give  glory  to  God,  save  this  stranger?  And  he  said  unto 
him,  arise,  and  go  thy  way;  thy  faith  hath  made  thee 
whole." 

Nine  of  these  lepers  were  Jews  and  one  was  a  Samari- 
tan, but  a  great  common  misery  had  broken  down  the 
barriers  of  national  prejudice,  and  had  brought  them  to- 
gether. When  they  were  healed,  they  parted  company, 
the  nine  going  on  to  observe  the  outward  forms  of  their 
religion,  while  the  other  gave  expression  to  his  deep  sense 
of  gratitude  to  God  before  he  could  observe  the  forms 
that  were  necessary  to  remove  his  ceremonial  unclean- 
ness.  Did  he  disobey  the  Master  by  returning  to  him  to 
express  his  gratitude  before  going  to  the  priest?  Jesus 
did  not  so  regard  his  act.  The  Samaritan's  action  was 
better  than  a  mere  literal  or  formal  obedience.  Jesus 
approved  the  glad  and  grateful  thanksgiving,  and  con- 


348  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

trasted  it  with  the  lack  of  gratitude  that  was  satisfied 
with  observing  the  letter  of  the  law. 

The  whole  event,  as  described  by  Luke,  may  only  have 
occupied  a  few  minutes.  The  ten  lepers,  having  heard 
Christ's  command,  turned  at  once  to  obey,  and  then  dis- 
covered that  they  were  healed.  The  nine  had  no  interest 
in  their  benefactor.  They  did  not  wish  to  have  it  known 
that  they  had  ever  been  miserable  lepers.  They  hastened 
to  cut  loose  from  everything  and  from  every  one  that  re- 
minded them  of  the  past.  They  thought  of  themselves 
and  looked  out  for  themselves.  The  Samaritan  was  dif- 
ferent. He  thought  of  his  benefactor  and  did  not  wish 
to  forget  the  past,  but  he  did  wish  to  show  his  gratitude 
to  his  benefactor,  and,  as  he  sought  to  do  this,  the  cleans- 
ing of  his  leprosy  became  the  means  to  the  higher  and 
greater  good,  his  personal  salvation. 

If  a  question  arises  as  to  why  this  miracle  is  not  m€n- 
tioned  by  Matthew  or  Mark,  a  satisfactory  answer  is 
suggested  when  we  remember  that  no  one  of  the  evan- 
gelists professed  to  record  all  our  Lord's  miracles,  and 
Matthew  and  Mark  had  recorded  the  healing  of  lepers 
during  the  Galilean  ministry,  so  that  they  could  have  no 
special  reason  for  speaking  of  this  particular  event.  The 
facts  that,  amongst  the  ten  lepers,  there  was  one  Samari- 
tan and  that  his  action,  when  healed,  differed  from  the 
acts  of  the  others,  are  sufficient  reason  for  Luke's  mak- 
ing special  mention  of  this  miracle. 

The  healing  of  the  ten  lepers  was  probably  our  Lord's 
first  miracle  after  leaving  Ephraim  where  he  had  enjoyed 
a  season  of  quiet  rest  and  communion  with  his  disciples, 
but  from  this  time  onward  he  was  in  almost  daily  contact 
with  the  Pharisees.  Luke  tells  of  a  discourse  concerning 
the  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God  that  was  introduced 
by  ^  question  of  the  Pharisees.    They  asked  Jesus  when 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  349 

the  kingdom  of  God  would  come.  In  his  answer  he  cor- 
rected their  views  in  regard  to  the  character  of  that  king- 
dom. They  were  expecting  some  such  outward  manifes- 
tations as  would  fulfill  the  prophecies  concerning  the 
glory  and  dominion  of  David's  greater  Son,  but  Jesus 
said,  "The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation ; 
neither  shall  they  say,  Lo,  here!  or  lo,  there!  for  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  you  or  in  the  midst  of  you." 

This  answer  to  the  Pharisees  may  have  meant  either  or 
both  of  two  things.  It  may  have  meant  that  the  king- 
dom of  God,  in  its  essence,  is  a  silent  principle  of  right- 
eousness, peace,  and  joy  in  God  that  has  its  dwelling 
place  in  the  heart,  and  can  exist  where  there  are  no  out- 
ward forms.  Or,  it  may  have  meant  that  the  kingdom 
the  Pharisees  should  have  been  looking  for  was  already 
there  in  the  person  of  the  King,  and  in  the  faithful  hearts 
that  believed  on  him.  It  was  equivalent  to  saying,  You 
are  asking  for  the  kingdom  of  God,  while  you  are  over- 
looking it ;  it  is  here  in  your  midst,  and  you  do  not  recog- 
nize it  because  it  does  not  come  with  observation. 

This  answer  was  not  understood  nor  accepted  by  the 
Pharisees,  nor  was  it  fully  understood  by  Jesus'  disciples, 
and  he  gave  them  a  more  extended  discourse  on  the  same 
subject.  He  told  them  that  the  days  would  come  when 
they  should  desire  to  see  one  of  the  days  of  the  Son  of 
Man  and  should  not  see  it.  They  did  not  recognize  their 
privilege  when  they  were  in  daily  contact  with  their  di- 
vine Master ;  and,  when  he  should  be  taken  from  them, 
they  would  begin  to  realize  the  blessings  they  had  failed 
to  appreciate.  He  warned  them,  also,  against  the  danger 
of  mistaking  something  else  for  the  kingdom  of  God. 
This  warning  was  for  all  generations  in  every  age. 
Credulity  and  skepticism  go  hand  in  hand.     The  kingdom 


350  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

of  God  is  overlooked  and  rejected,  while  sensational  pre- 
tenders, who  say,  "lo,  here !   or  lo,  there !"   are  believed. 

Having  said  this  much  to  correct  errors  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  kingdom,  Jesus  went  on  to  say  that  the  com- 
ing of  the  kingdom  could  not  be  anticipated  in  regard  to 
time.  It  would  come  as  the  lightning  when  it  lighteneth 
out  of  the  one  part  under  heaven  and  shineth  to  another. 
It  would  not  come  until  the  Son  of  man  had  suffered 
many  things  and  been  rejected.  Jesus  taught  that  his 
final  coming  would  find  the  world  as  unprepared  as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Noah  when  the  flood  came,  or  as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Lot  when  Sodom  was  destroyed. 

After  this  Jesus  repeated  his  warning  to  his  disciples 
that  self-seeking  was  suicide,  that  real  self-saving  was 
only  possible  by  willing  self-sacrifice;  that  men  are  not 
saved  in  the  mass,  nor  by  organization ;  that,  of  two  men 
in  one  bed,  one  should  be  taken  and  the  other  left,  and, 
of  two  women  engaged  in  the  same  simple  domestic  duties, 
one  should  be  taken  and  the  other  left.  The  bewildered 
disciples  said,  "where,  Lord?"  He  replied  "where  the 
body  is,  there  will  the  eagles,  or  vultures,  be  gathered  to- 
gether." 

The  meaning  of  these  last  words  and  their  bearing  on 
what  precedes,  is  doubtful.  We  may  venture  to  suggest 
that  they  had  some  reference  to  the  Pharisees  and  the 
hypocritical  rulers  of  the  Jews  who  were  making  so  much 
of  dead  forms,  while  they  were  ignoring  and  rejecting 
living  truth.  The  vultures,  assembled  to  feed  on  and  to 
fight  over  the  decaying  carcass,  were  not  unlike  the  hypo- 
critical religious  teachers  who  fought  over  the  outward 
forms  of  a  dead  faith. 

Not  long  after  this,  seated  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  our 
Lord  spake  more  at  length  on  this  general  subject ;  and 
it  can  be  treated  more  fully  as  we  study  that  event. 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  351 

After  reporting  our  Lord's  discourse  concerning  the 
coming  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the  evangelist  Luke 
records  two  parables  concerning  prayer  that  are  not 
recorded  by  any  of  the  other  evangelists.  One  of  these 
is  called  the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Judge,  and  it  is  de- 
signed and  adapted  to  enforce  the  duty  of  perseverence 
or  importunity  in  prayer.  This  judge  neither  feared 
God  nor  regarded  man.  He  had  neither  religious  rever- 
ence that  would  constrain  him  to  look  upon  the  just  cause 
as  a  sacred  trust  that  had  been  committed  to  him  as  God's 
minister  for  justice,  nor  did  he  have  that  touch  of  hu- 
manity that  would  constrain  him  to  be  interested  in  and 
have  compassion  on  a  suffering  brother  man.  He  was 
absolutely  selfish,  and  could  only  be  appealed  to  success- 
fully through  his  selfishness.  Nevertheless,  a  poor 
widow  so  besieged  him  with  petitions  for  deliverance  that 
he  said,  "Though  I  fear  not  God,  neither  regard  man, 
yet,  because  this  woman  troubleth  me,  I  will  avenge  her 
lest  she  wear  me  out  by  her  continual  coming." 

From  this  example  of  the  power  of  persevering,  im- 
portunate prayer,  where  the  judge  has  no  sense  of  justice 
or  kindness,  our  Lord  drew  his  lesson,  as  he  said,  "Hear 
what  the  unrighteous  judge  saith.  And  shall  not  God 
avenge  his  elect,  who  cry  to  him  day  and  night,  and  he  is 
long  suffering  over  them?  I  say  unto  you  that  he  will 
avenge  them  speedily."  God  is  a  loving  Father,  and  not 
an  unjust  judge ;  but  loving  fathers  do  not  always  an- 
swer at  once  the  petitions  of  their  children,  and  God  may, 
for  good  reasons,  let  his  children  pray  and  pray  again. 

This  parable  closes  with  what  at  first  seems  an  irrele- 
vant question,  as  Jesus  says,  "Howbeit,  when  the  Son  of 
man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?"  The  con- 
nection with  the  parable  may  be  this.  The  fact  that  all 
the  prayers  of  God's  people  are  not  answered  immediately, 


352  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  in  the  way  desired,  may  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
God  does  not  answer  prayer,  and  hence  the  question, 
"When  the  Son  of  man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the 
earth?"  He  will  come  when  the  men  of  the  world  are 
selling  and  buying,  eating  and  drinking,  and  doing  every- 
thing but  looking  for  his  appearing.  Will  his  own  peo- 
ple still  be  hoping  and  praying  and  watching?  shall  he 
find  faith  on  the  earth? 

The  parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican  follows 
the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Judge,  and  it  is  designed  and 
adapted  to  teach  the  importance  of  humility  in  prayer. 
The  encouragement  to  be  importunate  in  prayer  may  be 
misunderstood.  Importunacy  is  not  impudence,  nor  pre- 
sumption. Men  are  not  to  come  to  God  with  demands  or 
claims,  but  with  petitions ;  men  are  not  to  come  with 
trust  in  themselves,  but  with  trust  in  God.  In  this  parable 
two  men  went  up  into  the  temple  to  pray,  the  one  a  Phar- 
isee and  the  other  a  Publican.  The  Pharisee  felt  that  he 
had  superior  claims,  and  that  he  could  make  his  demands 
on  the  ground  of  his  own  merits.  He  said  in  his  heart, 
"God,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as  the  rest  of  men,  ex- 
tortioners, unjust,  adulterers,  or  even  as  this  Publican.  I 
fast  twice  in  the  week,  I  give  tithes  of  all  that  I  pos- 
sess." The  Publican's  attitude  presents  a  striking  con- 
trast. He  would  not  so  much  as  lift  his  eyes  toward 
heaven,  but,  smiting  his  breast,  said,  ,"God  be  merciful 
to  me  a  sinner."  He  had  no  claims  to  present,  no  merit 
to  plead.  Was  he  a  better  man  than  the  Pharisee,  who 
fasted  twice  a  week,  was  not  an  extortioner,  unjust  or 
an  adulterer,  and  who  looked  with  an  air  of  self-right- 
eous superiority  on  the  publican?  Our  Lord  answered 
this  question  as  he  said,  "This  man  went  down  to  his 
house  justified  rather  than  the  other."  When  men  come 
before  God  self-righteous  pride  is  the  greatest  abomina- 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  353 

tion,  and  real  humility  is  the  cardinal  virtue.  In  God's 
sight  the  humble,  erring  publican,  confessing  his  sin  and 
pleading  for  mercy,  is  a  better  man  than  the  proud 
Pharisee  boasting  of  his  scrupulous  regard  for  the  let- 
ter of  the  law. 

In  the  order  of  time,  it  is  probable  that  our  Lord's 
next  discourse  was  the  discourse  concerning  marriage 
and  divorce  and  was  not  recorded  by  Luke.  It  hardly 
seems  possible  to  identify  Luke  16:  18  with  Matthew  19: 
3-12,  and  Mark  10:2-12,  but  the  fact  that  Luke  had 
recorded  that  brief  statement  of  Jesus  made  in  different 
circumstances  might  be  sufficient  reason  for  making  no 
record  of  this  longer  discourse  on  the  same  subject. 

This  discourse  of  Jesus  was  the  result  of  a  question 
asked  by  Pharisees  tempting  him.  John  the  Baptist  had 
been  put  to  death  because  he  condemned  Herod  Antipas' 
action  in  taking  his  brother  Philip's  wife,  and  these  Phar- 
isees may  have  aimed  to  bring  Christ  into  conflict  with 
Herod  Antipas  by  his  answer  to  their  question.  If,  how- 
ever, we  take  the  question  as  it  is  recorded  by  Matthew, 
it  seems  more  like  an  effort  to  bring  Christ  into  conflict 
with  one  or  other  of  the  rabbinic  schools.  These  schools 
differed  in  their  judgment  as  to  what  constituted  suf- 
ficient reasons  for  divorce,  and  the  question  whether  it 
was  lawful  for  a  man  to  put  away  his  wife  "for  every 
cause"  called  for  what  Christ  regarded  as  a  sufficient 
cause  for  a  divorce. 

While  the  schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel  differed 
widely  in  their  estimates  of  justifiable  reasons  for  seeking 
a  divorce,  the  Jewish  law  and  Jewish  practice  made  it 
possible  for  a  man  to  divorce  his  wife  for  no  better 
reason  than  that  he  found  some  other  woman  more  at- 
tractive. Our  Lord  repudiated  both  schools,  and  laid 
down  the  great  principle  on  which  marriage  of  one  man 


354  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

with  one  woman  is  based,  as  he  said,  "Have  ye  not 
read,  that  he  who  made  them  from  the  beginning  made 
them  male  and  female,  and  said.  For  this  cause  shall  a 
man  leave  his  father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave  to  his 
wife,  and  the  twain  shall  become  one  flesh  ?  So  that  they 
are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh.  What  therefore  God 
hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder."  By  this 
answer  our  Lord  lifted  this  divine  institution  out  of  the 
mire  of  sensuality  and  selfishness,  and  showed  the  di- 
vine ideal  when  God  created  man  in  his  own  image  and 
then  created  woman  as  his  companion  and  other  self. 

This  definite  and  comprehensive  answer  swept  away 
all  the  sophistries  that  lust,  selfishness  and  sensuality  had 
invented  to  degrade  woman,  and  to  corrupt  this  purest, 
sweetest  and  holiest  of  human  relationships.  It  did  not 
satisfy  the  Pharisees,  and  they  replied,  "Why  then  did 
Moses  command  to  give  a  bill  of  divorcement  and  to  put 
her  away?"  Our  Lord  answered  this  appeal  to  the  law 
of  Moses  by  saying,  "Moses  for  your  hardness  of  heart 
suffered  you  to  put  away  your  wives;  but  from  the  be- 
ginning it  hath  not  been  so.  And  I  say  unto  you,  Who- 
soever shall  put  away  his  wife,  except  for  fornication, 
and  shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery ;  and  he 
that  marrieth  her  when  she  is  put  away  committeth  adul- 
tery." Here  was  an  unequivocal  answer  to  the  Phari- 
sees' question  and  their  appeal  to  the  law  of  Moses. 
Moses  had  not  commanded,  but,  because  of  the  hardness 
of  their  hearts,  for  the  protection  of  the  woman,  he  had 
permitted  a  man  in  certain  circumstances  to  give  a  bill  of 
divorcement.  It  was,  however,  contrary  to  the  divine 
plan  and  ideal  manifested  in  the  creation  of  man  and 
woman  and  in  the  first  institution  of  the  marriage  rela- 
tion. Jesus  did  not  condemn  the  law  of  Moses,  but  he 
did,  and  with  strong  emphasis,  put  the  stamp  of  his  con- 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  355 

demnation  on  the  seeking  or  granting  of  divorce  for  any 
other  reason  than  that  of  fornication.  His  teachings  on 
this  subject  were  so  definite,  so  different  from  the  Jew- 
ish sentiment  in  his  day,  and  so  intense,  that  even  his  dis- 
ciples questioned  whether  it  were  not  better  to  avoid  the 
sacred  and  irrevocable  responsibilities  of  the  marriage  re- 
lation, for  they  said,  "if  the  case  of  the  man  is  so  with  his 
wife  it  is  not  expedient  to  marry."  Our  Lord  answered 
their  objection,  showing  that,  apart  from  physical  unfit- 
ness for  marriage,  there  may  be  in  some  men  such  pre- 
occupation with  the  things  that  pertain  to  the  kingdom 
of  God  as  will  remove  all  thoughts  and  desires  for  the 
marriage  relation.  He  did  not,  however,  even  suggest 
any  law  of  celibacy  for  any  class  of  men. 

In  immediate  connection  with  the  report  of  this  dis- 
course on  the  sacredness  of  the  marriage  relation,  we 
have  an  account  of  Christ's  blessing  the  little  children. 
Following  the  order  of  events  as  it  is  indicated  by  the 
evangelist  Mark,  Jesus  left  the  Pharisees,  and  entered 
"the  house"  with  his  disciples  where  he  gave  them  a 
fuller  explanation  of  his  teaching.  He  was  probably  in 
this  house  when  the  little  children  were  brought  to  him 
that  he  might  bless  them. 

This  incident  is  recorded  by  the  three  evangelists,  Mat- 
thew, Mark  and  Luke.  It  seems  a  most  appropriate 
sequel  to  what  he  has  said  about  the  sacredness  and  in- 
violability of  the  marriage  relation.  In  that  dissolute 
age  when,  as  Seneca  says,  Roman  women  no  longer 
reckoned  their  years  by  the  consuls,  but  by  the  number 
of  husbands  they  had  repudiated ;  in  that  Roman  pro- 
vince where  Herod  Antipas,  the  murderer  of  John  the 
Baptist,  the  double  adulterer,  was  unrebuked  by  religious 
teachers,  Jesus  had  proclaimed  the  divine  ideal  of  mar- 
riage, and  now  in  the  house  where  parents  presented  their 


356  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

little  children,  the  fruit  of  pure  wedlock,  he  took  them  in 
his  arms  and  blessed  them.  His  disciples  had  been  sur- 
prised and  troubled  by  their  Master's  teachings,  and  even 
suggested  that  it  would  be  better  not  to  marry.  Our 
Lord's  answer  to  their  suggestion,  and  the  fact  that  he 
had  begun  his  ministry  by  attending  a  marriage  feast, 
repudiated  their  error,  but  they  needed  something  more. 
They  had  a  low  estimate  of  woman,  and  did  not  set  a  true 
value  on  childhood.  They  thought  that  a  discourse  con- 
cerning the  interests  of  the  kingdom  of  God  should  not  be 
disturbed  by  parents  bringing  their  little  children  to  the 
Master  and  they  rebuked  the  parents.  When  Jesus  saw 
it,  he  was  "moved  with  indignation."  This  is  the  strong- 
est word  that  is  ever  used  to  express  his  disapproval  of 
the  action  of  his  disciples.  He  was  moved  with  indigna- 
tion, and  said  unto  them,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to 
come  unto  me ;  forbid  them  not ;  for  of  such  is  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  whosoever 
shall  not  receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  therein.  And  he  took  them  in  his 
arms  and  blessed  them,  laying  his  hands  upon  them." 

This  remarkable  and  beautiful  object  lesson  does  not 
of  itself  warrant  the  doctrine  that  all  children  dying  in 
infancy  are  saved,  for  these  children  were  evidently  pre- 
sented by  believers.  Nor  does  it,  of  itself,  afford  an 
adequate  authority  for  the  baptism  of  infants;  but  it 
certainly  does  warrant  believing  parents  in  regarding 
their  children  as  sharing  their  covenant  relation  with 
God ;  and  it  certainly  does  authorize  them  to  bring  their 
children  to  the  visible  church,  to  claim  for  them  some 
outward  form  of  recognition ;  and,  when  this  incident  is 
interpreted  in  the  light  of  other  teachings  of  the  sacred 
scriptures  on  this  subject,  there  is  no  room  for  doubt. 
Christian  parents,  as  they  bring  their  children  to  Christ 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  357 

in  baptism,  may  appropriate,  as  well  as  hear  the  echo  of 
Christ's  words,  saying,  "Suffer  the  little  children  to  come 
unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom 
of  God." 

In  immediate  connection  with  their  accounts  of  Christ's 
blessing  the  little  children,  the  first  three  evangelists 
tell  of  the  coming  of  a  rich  young  ruler,  who  inquired 
what  he  must  do  in  order  to  have  eternal  life.  The  dif- 
ferent narratives  of  this  event  do  not  differ  in  any  es- 
sential. From  Luke  only  we  learn  that  the  young  man 
was  a  ruler,  while  Mark,  as  usual,  gives  the  more  detailed 
account  of  the  incident,  as  he  tells  of  the  young  man's 
running  and  kneeling  to  Jesus.  Jesus  had  left  the  house 
and  was  resuming  his  journey  toward  Jerusalem,  when 
this  earnest,  honest,  thoughtful  young  man  presented 
himself  as  a  humble  inquirer  after  the  way  of  life.  His 
wealth,  his  position  as  a  ruler,  were  forgotten  for  the 
time,  and  he  knelt  to  Jesus,  saying,  "Good  Master,  what 
shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life?" 

Could  there  be  any  objection  to  this  manner  of  ap- 
proaching Christ?  Jesus  objected,  saying,  "Why  callest 
thou  me  good?  None  is  good  save  one,  even  God." 
The  young  man  was  courteous.  He  would  honour  Jesus 
as  a  great  and  wise  teacher,  but  he  failed  to  see  in  him 
more  than  a  great  and  good  teacher,  and  this  failure  is 
reproved  by  the  Master's  answer.  It  would  be  utterly 
inconsistent  with  all  our  Lord's  teachings  concerning 
himself  to  suppose  that  he  refused  to  accept  the  attribute 
of  goodness,  but  it  is  in  exact  accord  with  his  teaching 
elsewhere  to  infer  that  he  claimed  divine  goodness. 
Then,  in  order  to  bring  out  the  young  man's  estimate  of 
himself,  Jesus  said,  "Thou  knowest  the  commandments. 
Do  not  kill,  do  not  commit  adultery,  do  not  steal,  do  not 
bear  false  witness,  do  not  defraud,  honour  thy  father  and 


358  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

thy  mother."  The  young  man  answered  promptly,  and 
with  conscious  honesty,  "All  these  things  have  I  observed 
from  my  youth."  He  was  in  these  respects  a  model 
young  man,  and  Jesus  loved  him ;  nevertheless,  he  did 
not  say  to  him  that  he  needed  nothing  more,  or  that  he 
had  eternal  life;  but  he  did  say,  "One  thing  thou  lack- 
est."  Then  he  applied  the  real  test,  as  he  said,  "Go,  sell 
whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  thou 
shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven,  and  come,  follow  me." 
This  command  revealed  what  was  lacking.  This  young 
man  loved  and  trusted  his  worldly  wealth  more  than  he 
loved  and  trusted  God  or  the  heavenly  treasures.  His 
god  was  his  worldly  wealth ;  his  heart  was  not  filled  and 
thrilled  by  the  power  of  an  endless  life.  "His  counte- 
nance fell  at  the  saying,  and  he  went  away  sorrowful,  for 
he  was  one  that  had  great  possessions." 

As  the  young  man  departed,  Jesus  looked  round  about 
and  said  to  his  disciples,  "How  hardly  shall  they  that 
have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God !"  Then,  see- 
ing the  amazement  of  his  disciples,  he  said,  "Children, 
how  hard  it  is  for  them  that  trust  in  riches  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God !  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  a  needle's  eye  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God."  When  the  disciples  said  in  their 
astonishment,  "Who  then  can  be  saved  ?"  Jesus  answer- 
ed, "with  men  it  is  impossible,  but  not  with  God ;  for  all 
things  are  possible  with  God."  As  Peter  heard  these 
words,  he  said  to  the  Master,  "Lo,  we  have  left  all  and 
followed  thee;  what  then  shall  we  have?"  Jesus  did  not 
rebuke  this  thought  about  reward ;  but  he  did  declare 
that  every  one  who  had  left  home,  or  brethren,  or  sisters 
or  mother,  or  father  or  children  or  lands  for  his  sake, 
and  the  gospel's,  should  receive  a  hundred  fold,  now  in 
this  time,  and,  in  the  age  to  come,  eternal  life.     He  recog- 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  359 

nized  a  divine  selfishness  that  seeks  eternal  well  being,  a 
selfishness  that  seeks  eternal  life,  a  selfishness  that  sacri- 
fices temporal  good  and,  by  so  doing,  transmutes  worldly 
wealth  into  heavenly  treasures. 

We  have  at  this  point  a  good  illustration  of  the  es- 
sential harmony  and  the  complete  independence  of  the 
gospel  narratives.  Luke  records  only  the  Master's  prom- 
ise to  those  who  have  made  any  sacrifice  for  him ;  Mark 
adds  a  warning  against  cherishing  the  thought  of  su- 
periority, and  he  records  the  words,  "but  many  that  are 
first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  shall  be  first" ;  and  Matthew 
tells  us  that  this  warning  was  emphasized  and  illustrated 
by  a  parable.  In  the  parable  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
likened  to  a  householder  who  employed  labourers  in  his 
vineyard.  Some  of  these  labourers  were  hired  early  in 
the  morning,  some  at  the  sixth,  some  at  the  ninth  and 
some  at  the  eleventh  hour,  but  each  one  was  paid,  ac- 
cording to  agreement,  a  penny.  Then  those  who  had  la- 
boured the  entire  day  murmured,  not  because  they  had 
received  less  than  the  agreement  called  for,  but  because 
others  who  had  laboured  less  time  received  as  much  as 
they.  But  the  householder  defended  his  course  by  saying, 
"Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own? 
or  is  thine  eye  evil  because  I  am  good?" 

The  general  lesson  of  the  parable  is  the  enforcement 
of  the  Master's  words,  as  he  said,  "The  last  shall  be  first 
and  the  first  last."  It  is  designed  to  teach  that  all  God's 
covenant  promises  are  fulfilled,  but  that  all  is  of  grace 
and  not  of  debt,  that  those  who  have  laboured  longest 
have  no  more  claim  upon  God  than  those  who  were 
called  last:  It  was  an  answer  to  Peter's  question,  and 
could  be  applied  to  the  apostles.  Paul  came  later,  but 
was  given  a  very  high  place.  It  could  be  applied  to  the 
Jews  as  compared  with  other  nations.     The  gift  of  God 


36o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

to  all  his  own  people,  whether  their  service  be  long  or 
short,  in  a  high  or  in  a  low  place — the  gift  of  God  to  each 
one  is  eternal  life  through  Jesus  Christ. 

This  does  not  teach  an  absolute  equality  of  all  who  are 
saved ;  it  can  be  interpreted  in  such  way  as  to  not  come 
in  conflict  with  the  definite  statement  of  other  Scriptures ; 
but  it  does  teach  that  all  is  of  grace  and  of  covenant 
promise,  and  that  the  rewards  are  not  graded  by  the  time 
of  the  call  to,  nor  by  length  of  service.  No  other  parable 
would  be  so  likely  to  suggest  that  eternal  life  can  be 
secured  by  works  as  this  one,  if  it  were  not  guarded. 
Consider  its  connection  and  look  at  the  first  outline. 
There  is,  first,  the  assurance  that  no  one  gives  up  any- 
thing for  Christ  and  the  gospel  witlwut  being  rewarded  a 
hundred  fold;  and,  then,  there  is  the  hiring  of  men  for 
wages  agreed  upon.  If  the  parable  had  ended  here,  it 
would  have  seemed  like  a  matter  of  earning  and  wages 
only.  But  this  error  is  guarded  against,  when  we  find 
all  receiving  the  same  wages  without  regard  to  real  earn- 
ings, and  when  the  householder  says,  "Is  it  not  lawful  for 
me  to  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own?" 

Our  Lord,  having  answered  Peter's  question  as  to  the 
reward  the  apostles  should  receive  for  having  left  all  to 
follow  him,  told  them  what  his  own  future  was  to  be. 
He  had  very  patiently  answered  what  must  have  seemed  a 
selfish  question.  These  disciples  were  enjoying  the  great- 
est privilege  that  ever  came  to  mortal  man,  yet  they  were 
asking  what  reward  they  should  have  for  the  great  sacri- 
fice they  had  made.  It  was  enough  to  tax  infinite  patience. 
Christ  had  left  the  Father's  bosom  and  the  Father's  house 
to  come  and  associate  with  them,  and  they  were  asking 
what  reward  they  should  have  for  leaving  their  little 
earthly  interests  to  follow  him.  But  Jesus  seemed  to  be 
looking   forward    rather  than   backward;    and,   as   he 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  361 

answered  their  questions  concerning  rewards,  he  thought 
of  what  would  befall  him  within  a  few  days,  when  he  came 
to  Jerusalem.  There  must  have  been  something  very  re- 
markable and  intense  in  his  manner,  for  all  the  circum- 
stances are  related.  They  were  in  the  way,  going  up  to 
Jerusalem — Jesus  was  going  before  them;  they  were 
amazed,  and  they  that  followed  were  afraid.  Jesus  took 
the  twelve  and  told  them  of  the  sufferings  that  awaited 
him  at  Jerusalem;  he  told  them  of  his  condemnation  by 
Jews  and  gentiles,  of  his  death  and  resurrection.  They 
did  not,  however,  comprehend  the  full  meaning  of  his 
words  until  afterwards. 

This  event  is  described  by  the  first  three  evangelists 
and  in  nearly  the  same  words,  though  Mark  gives  the 
most  vivid  picture,  and  Luke  alone  tells  us  that  the  dis- 
ciples "did  not  perceive  the  things  that  were  said."  The 
Master's  language  had  been  plain  enough,  but  it  was  in 
such  conflict  with  the  disciples'  ideas  of  the  coming  king- 
dom that  they  refused  or  failed  to  understand  it  literally. 
They  knew  that  their  Master  was  in  danger  at  Jerusalem, 
and  they  did  not  wish  to  have  him  go  there ;  but  they  did 
not  grasp  the  full  meaning  of  his  promised  resurrection, 
and  they  failed  to  perceive  that  he  was  about  to  be 
actually  put  to  death. 

The  next  event,  recorded  only  by  Matthew  and  Luke, 
presents  some  difficulties.  Taking  the  two  accounts  and 
combining  them,  we  see  James  and  John  with  their 
mother  coming  to  Jesus  after  he  had  foretold  his  own 
sufferings  and  death,  and  the  mother  asks  that  her  two 
sons  may  have  the  places  of  highest  honour  in  Christ's 
kingdom.  It  seems  a  strange  and  most  untimely  request. 
The  Master  had  been  speaking  of  his  own  sufferings  and 
death,  and  this  mother  and  her  two  sons  are  seeking  the 
high  places.    Nevertheless,  the  mother  comes  with  humble 


362  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

adoration ;  she  comes  with  a  faith  that  is  not  ecUpsed  by 
the  Master's  prediction  of  the  shame,  sufferings  and  death 
that  awaited  him  at  Jerusalem ;  and,  when  Jesus  asks 
whether  the  two  disciples  are  able  to  share  his  cup  and 
his  baptism,  they  reply  promptly,  "We  are  able."  There 
was  in  their  request  a  certain  kind  and  degree  of  faith 
that  elevated  it  above  ordinary  vanity  and  self-seeking. 
They  wished  to  be  near  the  Master.  They  felt  willing  and 
able  to  endure  the  shame  with  him,  to  suffer  with  him  as 
well  as  to  reign  with  him.  In  his  answer,  Jesus  recog- 
nized this,  as  he  said,  "The  cup  that  I  drink,  ye  shall 
drink;  and  with  the  baptism  that  I  am  baptized  withal 
shall  ye  be  baptized,  but  to  sit  on  my  right  hand  and  on 
my  left  hand  is  not  mine  to  give ;  but  it  is  for  them  for 
whom  it  hath  been  prepared" ;  or,  probably  a  better  ren- 
dering, "it  is  not  mine  to  give  except  for  whom  it  hath 
been  prepared  of  my  Father." 

While  Jesus  saw  as  much  of  faith  in  this  request  as  he 
sawof  self-seeking,  the  other  disciples  seemed  to  see  only 
selfish  ambition.  They  judged  the  motives  of  these  two 
disciples  by  their  own  motives,  and  they  were  filled  with 
indignation.  They  had  all  been  rebuked  on  another  oc- 
casion for  unseemly  strife  as  to  who  should  be  the  great- 
est, and  now  this  strife  was  about  to  be  renewed  when 
Jesus  corrected  their  false  conception  of  greatness,  by 
showing  the  contrast  between  his  kingdom  and  the  king- 
doms of  the  gentiles.  He  declared  that  amongst  his  dis- 
ciples greatness  must  be  measured  by  service;  that  the 
best  servant  of  all  is  the  greatest  of  all,  and  he  enforced 
this  by  his  own  example,  as  he  said,  "The  Son  of  man 
came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister,  and  to 
give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many." 

In  these  words  there  is  sufficient  motive  power  to 
revolutionize  the  world.    They  give  a  new  ideal  to  human 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  JERICHO  363 

ambition,  and  the  adoption  of  this  ideal  as  the  great  aim 
of  human  effort  would  result  in  the  sense  of  universal 
brotherhood.  It  is  the  germ  of  selfishness  and  the  spirit 
of  self  seeking  that  arrays  man  against  his  brother  man 
in  all  the  bitter  conflicts  of  life.  Back  of  all  the  millions 
slain  by  their  fellow  men,  from  the  time  that  Cain  looked 
upon  the  dead  body  of  his  murdered  brother  until  the 
present ;  back  of  all  the  cries  and  mortal  agonies  of  all 
earth's  battlefields  in  all  the  ages ;  back  of  all  the  broken 
hearts  and  desolated  homes  that  have  resulted  from  man's 
conflict  with  his  fellowman,  lies  the  deadly  sin  of  selfish- 
ness. Jesus  Christ  establishes  his  kingdom  in  the  world 
by  substituting  for  the  germ  of  selfishness,  the  germ  of 
service,  and  for  the  spirit  of  self  seeking,  the  spirit  of  self 
sacrifice  for  others. 

John  and  James  had  ambition  for  great  service  as  well 
as  great  honours,  and  James  became  the  first  apostolic 
martyr,  while  John  lived  and  suffered  for  the  Master  till 
near  the  end  of  the  first  century,  when  he,  too,  probably 
drank  the  cup  of  martyrdom.  Their  request  was  probably 
prompted  by  motives  that  were  not  free  from  selfish  am- 
bition ;  but  it  afforded  an  opportunity  for  the  Master  to 
define  true  greatness. 


LIII 
JESUS  AT  JERICHO 

Luke  19:  10.  "For  the  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  to 
save  that  which  was  lost." 

(Mat.  20:  29-34;   Mark  10:  46-52;   Luke  18:  35-19:  18.) 

THERE  is  room  for  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
the  chronological  order  of  events  in  all  this 
section  of  our  Lord's  public  ministry,  and  we  do 
not  attempt  to  defend  our  assumption  that  this  was  the 
last  journey  to  Jerusalem.  We  may,  however,  say  in 
passing  that  it  seems  impossible  to  accept  the  order  sug- 
gested by  many  harmonists  who  make  this  visit  to  Jeri- 
cho precede  the  feast  of  dedication  and  the  raising  of 
Lazarus ;  for  to  do  so  would  leave  us  without  any  record 
of  what  Christ  did  for  the  four  months  immediately  pre- 
ceding the  last  passover.  Notwithstanding  the  objections 
that  may  be  offered,  it  seems  much  more  consistent  with 
all  the  known  facts  to  regard  all  the  events  of  this  jour- 
ney as  taking  place  after  the  feast  of  dedication,  and 
after  the  raising  of  Lazarus. 

Jesus,  with  his  disciples  and  the  company  of  worship- 
pers, on  their  way  to  the  feast  of  the  passover,  crossed  the 
Jordan  for  the  last  time  and  came  to  Jericho,  the  Eden  of 
Palestine.  This  "City  of  Palms"  was  only  about  six 
hours  from  Jerusalem,  and  in  our  Lord's  day  was,  not 
only  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  but  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant cities  in  Palestine.  If  an  ordinary  historian  had 
been  describing  this  event,  he  would  have  had  a  great  deal 

364 


JESUS  AT  JERICHO  365 

to  say  about  the  beauty  and  importance  of  this  historic 
city,  but  the  evangelists  only  tell  what  Jesus  Christ  did  as 
he  entered  and  passed  through  it.  Matthew,  Mark  and 
Luke  tell  of  a  miracle  of  healing,  and  their  accounts  differ 
in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  that  they  might  be  describing 
different  events,  Matthew  and  Mark  speak  of  our  Lord's 
performing  the  miracle  as  they  were  going  out  of  Jericho, 
and  Luke  speaks  of  it  as  occurring  when  they  were  com- 
ing into  Jericho.  Mark  and  Luke  only  speak  of  the  heal- 
ing of  one  blind  man,  and  Matthew  tells  us  that  two  blind 
men  were  healed.  Different  writers  make  different  ex- 
planations, and  it  is  certainly  possible  to  so  explain  these 
different  records  as  to  satisfy  any  theory  of  inspiration 
and  find  no  irreconcilable  conflict  in  the  narratives.  If 
the  different  writers  had  been  in  collusion,  no  such  ques- 
tion could  have  arisen,  and  our  inability  to  say  just  how 
they  are  to  be  harmonized  is  conclusive  evidence  that  the 
narratives  are  mutually  independent. 

The  company  with  Jesus  had  become  a  great  multitude, 
and  their  passing  arrested  the  attention  of  blind  beggars 
who  sat  by  the  wayside,  and  they  inquired  what  it  meant. 
When  they  were  told  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  passing 
by,  they  began  to  cry  out,  "Jesus,  thou  son  of  David,  have 
mercy  on  me."  The  multitude  sought  to  silence  them, 
but  they  only  cried  the  louder  until  Jesus  stood  still  and 
called  them  to  him,  and  said,  "What  will  ye  that  I  should 
do  unto  you?"  When  they  made  their  plea  that  their 
eyes  might  be  opened,  Jesus  was  moved  with  compassion 
and  healed  them.  Mark  and  Luke  only  speak  of  one,  and 
Mark  tells  us  that  his  name  was  Bartimeus. 

It  is  evident  that  this  miracle  is  not  reported  in  order 
to  show  that  Christ  had  power  to  perform  such  a  miracle, 
for  he  had  opened  other  blind  eyes  and  had  raised  the 
dead.    This  miracle  was  not  needed  to  add  to  his  repu- 


366  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

tation,  for  the  persistent  cry  of  these  bUnd  men  when 
they  heard  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  passing  shows  that 
he  was  already  known  to  them  as  one  who  could  open  the 
eyes  of  the  blind.  This  miracle,  like  many  others,  is  an 
acted  parable,  and  if  we  would  learn  the  lessons  it  is  de- 
signed to  teach,  we  must  notice  the  incidents  emphasized 
by  the  inspired  evangelists.  The  time,  the  place  and  the 
number  of  persons  healed  seem  unimportant;  but  the 
noise  of  the  great  multitude,  the  persistent  cry  of  the  blind 
men,  the  unwillingness  of  the  multitude,  the  willingness 
and  compassion  of  Jesus  are  emphasized.  It  was  the 
noise  of  a  great  multitude  of  professors  of  religion  going 
with  Jesus  to  Jerusalem  that  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  blind  men,  and  some  of  the  multitude  told  the  blind 
men  what  it  all  meant,  as  they  said,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth 
passeth  by."  But  for  the  noise  of  the  multitude  and  the 
explanation  given  by  the  multitude,  these  blind  men 
would  not  have  known  that  Jesus  was  near  enough  for 
them  to  call  on  him  with  any  hope  of  being  heard.  But 
this  same  multitude  rebuked  the  blind  men  and  sought  to 
silence  their  cries  for  help,  while  the  blind  men  persisted 
and  cried  the  louder.  Then  Jesus  stood  still,  called  the 
blind  men,  had  compassion,  commended  their  faith,  and 
healed  them. 

Is  not  the  lesson  evident?  In  this  age  organized  Chris- 
tianity, or  the  Christian  church,  with  her  ordinances  of 
religion,  like  the  multitude  at  Jericho,  is  arresting  the  at- 
tention of  a  blind,  sinning,  suffering,  lost  world.  The 
Christian  church,  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  is 
telling  blind,  suffering,  lost  men  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
is  passing  by.  Does  the  church  stop  here,  or  does  she 
continue  to  imitate  this  multitude  at  Jericho  by  seeking  to 
silence  the  cry  of  those  who  feel  their  need  of  Jesus  Christ 
as  a  personal  Saviour?    Is  the  Christian  church  satisfied 


JESUS  AT  JERICHO  367 

when  she  has  proclaimed  Christ  to  the  world,  or  is  she 
seeking  also  to  bring  the  world  to  Christ?  Many  critics 
of  Christian  churches  complain  that  organized  Christi- 
anity is  putting  obstacles  in  the  way  of  those  who  would 
come  to  the  Saviour.  Is  this  criticism  just?  Are  profes- 
sing Christians  so  cold,  compassionless,  formal,  con- 
servative and  proud  as  to  silence  the  cry  of  any  poor, 
spiritually  blind,  suffering  Bartimeus?  Or  do  we  sing 
with  equal  emphasis, 

"Christ  for  the  world  we  sing; 
The  world  to  Christ  we  bring"? 

Is  our  compassion  manward  equal  to  our  profession  of 
religion  Godward  ?  As  we  follow  Christ  do  we  help  men 
to  come  to  Christ  ? 

Luke  records  another  event  that  occurred  while  Jesus 
was  in  Jericho  that  seems  to  suggest  somewhat  similar 
dangers  and  duties  of  the  Christian  church.  There  was  in 
Jericho  a  rich,  chief  publican,  named  Zacchaeus,  who 
greatly  desired  to  see  Jesus  as  he  was  passing  through 
the  city.  Zacchseus  was  moved  by  some  nobler  sentiment 
than  mere  morbid  curiosity.  His  business  was  frowned 
upon  by  the  representatives  of  religion,  and  he  did  not 
presume  to  press  through  the  crowd  and  come  boldly  to 
Jesus.  Being  small  of  stature,  he  could  not  even  catch  a 
glimpse  of  him  by  standing  at  the  wayside,  but  he  was  a 
resourceful  man ;  he  could  overcome  obstacles,  and  he 
did  what  a  more  dignified  rich  man  would  have  considered 
ridiculous.  He  ascertained  the  point  that  Jesus  would 
probably  pass,  and,  running  ahead  of  the  crowd,  he 
climbed  into  a  sycamore  tree  by  the  wayside.  He  was 
willing  to  do  all  this  in  order  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
man  who  could  open  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  and  who 


368  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

claimed  to  be  the  promised  Alessiah.  When  Jesus  came 
to  the  place  he  looked  up,  and  calling  Zacchaeus  by  his 
name,  said,  "Make  haste  and  come  down;  for  to-day  I 
must  abide  at  thy  house."  Zacchseus'  surprise  was  lost 
sight  of  in  the  great  joy  that  filled  his  heart.  His  sense 
of  need  had  kindled  a  thirst  that  he  had  hoped  to  satisfy 
by  a  glimpse  of  Jesus  as  he  was  passing;  but,  now,  he  is 
granted  the  privilege  of  entertaining  him  as  his  guest.  He 
came  down  with  haste  and  joyfully  welcomed  Jesus  to 
his  home. 

When  the  multitude  saw  it,  they  murmured,  saying, 
"He  is  gone  to  lodge  with  a  man  that  is  a  sinner."  These 
murmurs  and  complaints  against  Christ's  act  were  so 
general  that  Zacchseus  was  constrained  to  defend  him- 
self and  to  plead  his  own  cause.  He  did  not  deny  that  he, 
a  Jew,  was  in  the  service  of  the  Roman  government,  col- 
lecting from  his  own  nation  a  tax  that  they  were  very  un- 
willing to  pay ;  nor  did  he  claim  that  he  had  always  been 
just ;  but  he  does  declare  his  present  purpose  as  he  says, 
"Lord  the  half  of  my  goods  I  give  to  the  poor;  and  if  I 
have  wrongfully  taken  aught  of  any  man,  I  restore  four- 
fold." He  had  found  the  Christ,  and  he  valued  his  ap- 
proval above  all  else.  He  would  restore  four-fold  where 
he  has  wronged  any  one,  and  half  his  goods  would  be  de- 
voted to  helping  those  whose  only  claim  upon  him  was 
their  need.  Our  Lord  approved  his  act,  and  said,  "To-day 
is  salvation  come  to  this  house,  for  as  much  as  he  also  is 
a  son  of  Abraham."  Then,  speaking  to  the  multitude, 
Jesus  defended  his  own  course  by  saying,  "The  Son  of 
man  came  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 

In  the  light  of  these  words,  we  see  that,  while  Zac- 
chseus was  seeking  Jesus,  Jesus  was  also  seeking  Zac- 
chseus. It  was  no  more  accident  on  Christ's  part  than  on 
Zacchseus'  part  that  they  met  in  this  strange  way.    While 


JESUS  AT  JERICHO  369 

Zacchseus  was  planning  to  see  Jesus,  Jesus  planned  to  see 
Zacchasus  and  came  to  that  tree  with  the  purpose  to  spend 
the  day  at  the  publican's  house.  So  it  ever  is.  The  man 
who  in  humble  earnestness  is  seeking  Jesus  may  be  sure 
that  Jesus  is  also  seeking  him. 

Luke  introduces  his  report  of  the  parable  of  the  Ten 
Pounds  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  little  doubt  that  it  was 
spoken  in  the  house  of  Zacchseus.  Jericho  is  about  fifteen 
miles  from  Jerusalem ;  and  Luke,  after  recording  the 
words  of  Jesus  to  Zacch^us  and  the  murmuring  multi- 
tude, goes  on  to  say,  "As  they  heard  these  things  Jesus 
added  and  spake  a  parable,  because  he  was  nigh  to 
Jerusalem,  and  because  they  supposed  the  kingdom  of 
God  was  immediately  to  appear."  These  words  seem  to 
fix  definitely  the  time,  place  and  circumstances  in  which 
our  Lord  spake  this  parable,  and  it  does  not  seem  neces- 
sary to  go  farther  in  order  to  show  that  it  cannot  be 
identified  with  the  parable  of  the  talents  reported  by 
Matthew.  We  may  say,  too,  in  passing,  that  the  whole 
structures  of  the  two  parables  are  so  essentially  dififerent 
that  they  could  not  be  identified  without  such  violence  to 
the  sacred  narrative  as  to  compel  us  to  give  up  all  claims 
of  the  historical  accuracy  of  the  gospels. 

The  ground  work  of  this  parable  is  thought  to  have 
been  derived  from  the  history  of  Archelaus,  son  of  Herod 
the  Great.  When  Archelaus  went  to  Rome  to  receive  his 
kingdom  the  Jews  sent  protests;  but  the  Emperor,  Au- 
gustus, did  not  regard  them.  It  was  in  accord  with  our 
Lord's  method  of  drawing  lessons  from  the  lilies,  and  the 
grass,  or  the  circumstances,  that  he  should  base  this  para- 
ble on  a  well  known  historical  incident. 

In  the  parable  a  nobleman,  about  to  go  into  a  far  coun- 
try to  receive  a  kingdom  and  return,  calls  his  ten  servants 
and  gives  to  them  ten  pounds,  saying,  ''Trade  ye  here- 


370  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

with  till  I  come."  By  this  arrangement  each  servant  re- 
ceived a  pound,  about  three  dollars.  But  the  citizens,  who 
hated  the  nobleman,  sent  an  ambassage  after  him,  saying, 
We  will  not  have  this  man  to  reign  over  us.  When  the 
nobleman  returns,  having  received  his  kingdom,  he  calls 
his  servants,  receives  their  reports  and  rewards  them  ac- 
cording to  their  faithfulness  and  efficiency.  The  one 
whose  pound  has  gained  ten  pounds  is  given  authority 
over  ten  cities ;  the  one  whose  pound  has  gained  five 
pounds  is  given  authority  over  five  cities,  while  the  un- 
grateful, disloyal  grumbler  loses  his  talent,  and  it  goes  to 
swell  the  capacity  and  resources  of  the  most  faithful  and 
efficient.  When  the  bystanders  remark  that  this  man  has 
ten  pounds  already,  the  nobleman  proclaims  the  principle 
on  which  he  is  acting  when  he  says,  "Unto  every  one  that 
hath  shall  be  given,  but  from  him  that  hath  not  shall  be 
taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath."  Then  the  com- 
mand is  given  to  destroy  the  enemies  that  would  not  have 
the  nobleman,  now  a  king,  to  reign  over  them. 

This  parable  is  designed  to  illustrate  certain  phases  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  Christ  is  evidently  the  one  who  goes 
into  a  far  country  to  receive  his  kingdom,  and  the  citizens 
who  rejected  his  rule  are,  first  of  all,  the  Jews,  while  the 
servants  are  his  disciples.  But  the  parable,  in  general, 
proclaims  the  nearness  of  our  Lord's  departure  out  of 
the  world,  his  rejection  by  his  own  nation,  the  different 
degrees  of  faithfulness  and  efficiency  of  his  servants,  and 
his  coming  again  in  the  power  and  glory  of  his  kingdom 
to  reward  his  servants  and  to  punish  those  who  reject 
him. 

All  the  incidents  recorded  in  connection  with  our  Lord's 
passing  through  Jericho  seem  designed  to  warn  Christians 
or  professors  of  religion  against  the  cold,  compassionless 
spirit  that  would  exclude  any  one  from  sharing  in  the 


JESUS  AT  JERICHO  371 

blessings  of  the  gospel.  The  healing  of  the  blind  men, 
the  interest  in  and  the  kindness  toward  Zacchaeus,  and  the 
parable,  spoken  because  they  were  near  to  Jerusalem  and 
expecting  the  kingdom  of  God,  combine  to  emphasize  the 
great  obligation  of  Christians  to  seek  the  lost  and  bring 
them  to  Jesus.  Cain  repudiated  all  obligation  for  any  one 
but  himself  when  he  said,  in  haughty  rebellion,  "Am  I 
my  brother's  keeper?"  The  spirit  of  Cain  is  the  spirit  of 
the  world.  The  spirit  of  Christ  is  in  direct  opposition  to 
that  of  Cain  and  of  the  world.  By  parable,  miracle,  pre- 
cept and  example,  Jesus  teaches  that  every  man  is  his 
brother's  keeper,  that  each  one's  responsibility  for  every 
other  is  measured  by  the  need  of  that  other  and  by  his 
ability  to  help-  The  spirit  of  Cain  breeds  war,  making 
man  to  his  fellow  man  his  sorest,  surest  enemy.  The 
spirit  of  Christ  is  the  world's  great  peace  maker. 


LIV 
JESUS  IN  BETHANY 

John  12 :  I.  "Jesus  therefore  six  days  before  the  passover  came 
to  Bethany,  where  Lazarus  was,  whom  Jesus  raised  from  the 
dead." 

(Mat.  26:6-16;  Mark  14:3-11;  Luke  22:1;  John  11:55-12: 
n.) 

LEAVING  Jericho  on  Friday,  Nison  8,  six  days  be- 
fore the  passover,  Jesus,  with  his  disciples  and  a 
great  company  of  pilgrims,  journeyed  in  the  di- 
rection of  Jerusalem.  Toward  evening,  but  before  the 
setting  sun  had  ushered  in  the  Jewish  Sabbath,  he  turned 
aside  to  Bethany,  while  the  greater  part  of  the  company 
continued  their  journey  to  the  holy  city.  The  Sabbath 
was  probably  spent  in  the  quiet  home  of  Mary  and  Martha 
and  Lazarus.  How  it  was  spent,  we  are  not  told,  but 
where  there  were  such  bonds  of  friendship  as  existed  be- 
tween our  Lord  and  the  members  of  this  family,  we  may 
well  believe  that  this  Sabbath  would  be  long  remembered 
as  a  day  of  hallowed  rest,  a  day  hardly  less  holy  and  de- 
lightful than  one  of  the  coming  days  in  our  heavenly 
Father's  house.  The  IMaster  and  his  friends  were  under 
the  shadow  of  the  cross;  but  they  were  in  communion 
with  God  the  Father  and  with  one  another.  The  inspired 
writers  do  not  undertake  to  describe  the  experiences  of 
that  holy  day  in  Bethany,  but  we  know  that,  though  it 
was  the  calm  that  preceded  the  coming  storm,  it  was,  at 
the  same  time,  a  calm  that  was  filled  with  the  peace  of 
God  that  passeth  all  understanding. 


JESUS  IN  BETHANY  373 

In  the  evening,  after  the  Sabbath,  a  feast  was  given  in 
the  house  of  "Simon  the  leper."  Who  this  Simon  the 
leper  was  we  do  not  know.  We  know  that  he  was  not  a 
leper  at  that  time,  for  a  leper  could  not  have  given  a  feast. 
It  is  possible  that  Simon  was  not  living  at  that  time  and 
that  the  feast  was  given  at  a  house  of  one  who  had  been 
known  as  Simon  the  leper.  It  has  been  suggested  that 
this  was  the  name  of  the  father  of  Mary,  Martha  and 
Lazarus,  and  that  he  was  not  living.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested also  that  Martha  was  a  widow,  and  that  this  was 
the  name  of  her  deceased  husband.  These  and  other  sug- 
gestions are  only  guesses.  It  is,  however,  most  evident 
that  this  event  cannot  by  any  means  be  identified  with  the 
event  recorded  in  the  seventh  chapter  of  Luke. 

All  we  know  of  this  feast  is  to  be  learned  from  John 
12:1-8;  Matthew  26:6-13;  Mark  14:3-9.  From  these 
sources  we  learn  that  the  feast  was  in  the  house  of  Simon 
the  leper;  that  the  family  at  Bethany  were  the  central 
figures ;  that  Martha  had  the  supervision  of  the  feast  and 
that  the  risen  Lazarus  was  nearly  as  great  an  object  of 
curious  interest  as  was  Jesus. 

In  the  great  event  of  the  feast,  in  that  incident  for 
which  the  feast  seems  to  be  given  so  prominent  a  place  in 
the  sacred  narratives,  Mary  is  the  chief  actor.  By  this  one 
act  her  name  is  destined  to  be  linked  with  the  name  of 
Jesus  wheresoever  the  gospel  shall  be  preached.  This 
family  at  Bethany  were  evidently  far  above  the  average 
Jewish  family  in  wealth  and  refinement,  and  Mary  had 
an  alabaster  cruse  containing  a  pound  of  very  precious 
and  costly  nard,  worth  about  thirty  dollars.  Such  oint- 
ment would  ordinarily  be  used  very  sparingly;  but,  as 
Jesus  reclined  at  the  feast  Mary  took  this  precious  oint- 
ment, broke  the  cruse,  and  poured  the  contents  on  his 
head  and  his  feet,  wiping  his  feet  with  her  hair.    It  was 


374  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

the  complete  self  abandon  of  adoring  love.  Mary  did  not 
stop  to  reckon  the  cost.  Nothing  in  all  the  world  was  too 
costly  to  express  her  loving  gratitude  for  her  Lord.  That 
cruse  of  nard,  as  its  odor  filled  all  the  house,  was  a  most 
fitting  expression  of  a  love  that  was  all  pervading,  all 
controlling,  but  could  find  no  adequate  expression.  She 
could  have  sung  with  fullness  of  meaning, 

"Were  the  whole  realm  of  nature  mine, 
That  were  a  present  far  too  small." 

Probably  no  one  at  the  feast,  except  Jesus,  was  quite 
able  to  recognize  the  beauty  and  fitness  of  this  act  of 
Mary.  One,  at  least,  was  present  who  was  a  stranger  to 
the  reality  and  beauty  of  self  devoting  love.  He  could 
see  in  this  splendid  act  of  faith  and  love  no  fitness,  no 
beauty,  only  reckless  waste,  and  he  murmured,  saying, 
"Why  was  not  this  ointment  sold  for  three  hundred  pence 
and  given  to  the  poor?"  He  was,  not  only  incapable  of 
appreciating  the  love  that  prompted  this  act,  but  he 
coveted  the  money  that  might  have  been  realized  from  the 
sale  of  the  ointment;  and  this,  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
poor,  as  he  professed,  but  for  himself. 

A  more  striking  contrast  than  that  presented  by  Mary 
and  Judas  can  hardly  be  imagined.  She  was  glad  to  put 
into  one  expression  of  love  for  her  Lord  three  times  as 
much  as  Judas  afterwards  received  for  betraying  him  to 
be  crucified.  Yet  the  words  of  Judas  found  response  and 
approval  even  amongst  the  disciples,  and  some  of  them 
joined  in  his  murmur  of  disapproval.  Alas,  that  fault- 
finding should  be  of  all  diseases  the  most  contagious ! 
Where  the  purest  and  noblest  deeds  are  criticized  the 
blindest  are  the  first  to  see  the  supposed  defects !  Our 
Lord  answered  the  critic,  saying,  and  we  may  well  be- 


JESUS  IN  BETHANY  375 

Heve  with  deep  and  mingled  emotions,  "Suffer  her  to 
keep  it  against  the  day  of  my  burying.  For  the  poor  ye 
have  always  with  you,  but  me  ye  have  not  always."  In 
the  light  of  what  took  place  in  that  week,  we  may  see 
the  profound  pathos  of  these  words.  Jesus  was  going  to 
his  death,  and  was  anointed  for  his  burial,  not  only  with 
precious  ointment,  but  with  the  anointing  of  devoted, 
unselfish,  inexpressible  love. 

No  one  in  the  company  except  Judas  knew  how  near 
they  were  to  the  last  act  in  the  divine  tragedy.  The  dis- 
ciples knew  that  their  Master  was  in  great  danger,  and 
they  had  been  in  deep  distress  as  they  had  heard  him 
speak  of  what  he  was  to  suffer  at  Jerusalem,  but  they  still 
cherished  the  hope  that  the  great  calamity  might  be 
averted.  Judas  had  not,  even  in  purpose,  committed  his 
great  crime  when  he  came  to  that  feast.  Our  Lord  had 
seen  from  the  beginning  the  seed  that  was  developing  in 
the  heart  of  the  traitor,  and  had  said,  "Did  I  not  choose 
you  the  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil?"  Judas  did 
not  know  at  this  time  that  he  would  betray  his  Master, 
for  Luke  describes  what  took  place  at  this  feast  when  he 
says,  "Satan  entered  into  Judas  who  was  called  Iscariot, 
one  of  the  twelve." 

Fame  and  infamy  are  often  achieved  unconsciously. 
At  this  feast,  two  persons  erected  to  themselves  ever- 
lasting memorials.  Mary's  act  placed  her  before  the 
Christian  church  in  all  coming  ages  as  the  personification 
of  inexpressible  love  and  devotion,  and  the  words  of 
Judas  proclaimed  him  the  personification  of  selfishness, 
covetousness  and  avarice. 

Up  to  this  time  Judas  probably  felt  that  his  own  selfish 
interests  could  be  secured  by  concealing  his  real  character 
and  following  Jesus ;  but  now  Jesus  has  come  between 
him  and  the  idol  his  covetous  soul  worshipped,  and  he 


Zl^  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

determined  to  betray  his  Master.  After  the  feast,  under 
cover  of  the  night,  he  sought  the  chief  priests,  either  in 
Bethany  or  by  going  to  Jerusalem,  less  than  two  miles 
distant,  and  said,  "What  are  you  willing  to  give  me  and 
I  will  deliver  him  unto  you?"  The  chief  priests  and  cap- 
tains were  glad,  and,  having  made  their  wicked  bargain, 
weighed  him  out  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  about  one-third  of 
the  value  of  the  ointment  that  love  had  poured  on  the  head 
and  on  the  feet  of  Jesus.  This  act  fully  warranted  the 
words  of  the  evangelist  John  that  Judas  cared  not  for  the 
poor,  but  was  a  thief  and  coveted  the  price  of  the  oint- 
ment. The  die  was  cast.  The  crime  of  the  ages  was 
planned  and  only  awaited  the  favorable  opportunity  for 
its  execution.  Love  had  anointed  Jesus  for  his  burial  and 
covetous  hatred  had  planned  the  murde;r  of  the  Son  of 
God. 


LV 

THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK 

Matthew  21 :  5.     "Behold,  thy  King  cometh  unto  thee." 

Mark   11:19.     "Hosannna !    Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the 

name  of  the  Lord." 

(Matthew  21:1-17;     Mark    ii:i-ii    and   15-18;    Luke   19:29- 

48;  John  12:  12-36.) 

THE  general  outline  of  events  during  the  different 
days  of  Passion  Week  is  evident,  but  the  exact 
order  of  the  different  incidents  and  discourses 
cannot  always  be  certainly  known.  We  have,  therefore, 
included  in  this  chapter  the  events  that  seem  to  have  oc- 
curred on  the  first  day  of  this  Jewish  week. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  week,  Jesus  and  his  disciples  and 
the  company  of  friends,  pilgrims  and  visitors,  who  had 
spent  the  Sabbath  in  Bethany,  started  toward  Jerusalem. 
About  the  same  time  a  great  multitude  from  Jerusalem 
started  out  over  the  Mount  of  Olives  to  meet  him.  From 
the  time  he  had  raised  Lazarus  from  the  dead,  he  had 
been  the  topic  of  conversation  and  the  center  of  attraction 
for  nearly  all  the  dwellers  in  the  Holy  City.  The  chief 
priests  and  rulers  talked  of  him,  for  they  were  perfecting 
their  plans  to  put  him  to  death,  and  they  were  hoping  that 
he  might  come  up  to  the  passover,  so  that  they  might  be 
able  to  put  their  plans  into  execution.  They  had  lost 
sight  of  him  when  he  went  to  Ephraim  and  they  had  given 
commandment  that  if  any  one  knew  where  he  was,  he 
should  show  it.  The  common  people  had  heard  his  words 
or  seen  his  miracles,  and  wished  to  see  One  who  could, 


378  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

not  only  heal  the  sick,  but  raise  the  dead.  Many  had 
come  to  Bethany  when  they  heard  that  Jesus  was  spending 
the  Sabbath  there,  and  many  others,  expecting  him  to 
come  to  Jerusalem  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,  went  out 
over  the  Mount  of  Olives  to  meet  him. 

On  the  Mount  of  Olives,  between  Bethany  and  Jeru- 
salem, was  a  village  called  Bethphage,  and  to  this  village 
Christ  sent  two  of  his  disciples  on  what  must  have  seemed 
to  them  a  remarkable  errand.  He  said,  "Go  into  the  vil- 
lage that  is  over  against  you  and  straightway  ye  shall 
find  an  ass  tied,  and  a  colt  with  her;  loose  them  and 
bring  them  unto  me.  And  if  any  one  say  aught  unto  you, 
ye  shall  say.  The  Lord  hath  need  of  him ;  and  straight- 
way he  will  send  him."  The  disciples  obeyed  their  Master 
and  found  everything  just  as  he  had  said.  In  this  manner 
the  way  was  prepared  for  the  fulfillment  of  Zechariah's 
prophecy  that  Zion's  King  should  come  riding  upon  an 
ass,  even  upon  a  colt  the  foal  of  an  ass. 

Going  from  Bethany  to  Jerusalem,  our  Lord  probably 
took  the  nearest  route  from  Bethany  to  the  caravan  road, 
leading  from  Jericho  to  the  Holy  City  and  entered  Jeru- 
salem by  this  road.  Dean  Stanley,  speaking  of  this  road, 
says,  "It  soon  loses  sight  of  Bethany.  It  is  now  a  rough 
but  well  defined  mountain  track,  winding  over  rock  and 
loose  stones ;  a  deep  declivity  on  the  left,  the  sloping 
shoulder  of  Olivet  above  on  the  right ;  fig  trees,  above  and 
below,  here  and  there  growing  out  of  the  rocky  soil."  At 
the  point  in  this  road  nearest  to  Bethphage,  "the  house  of 
figs,"  three  companies  met,  the  company  with  our  Lord, 
the  company  from  Bethphage,  following  the  two  disciples 
who  brought  the  young  ass,  and  the  multitude  that  had 
come  out  from  Jerusalem.  Neither  the  disciples  nor  the 
promiscuous  crowd  thought  of  assisting  in  the  fulfillment 
of  any  prophecy,  and  all  acted  on  the  impulse  of  the 


THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK      379 

moment.  The  disciples  flung  their  garments  on  the  colt 
and  set  their  Master  thereon ;  then,  as  they  moved  for- 
ward, a  mighty  wave  of  enthusiasm  swept  over  the  surg- 
ing multitude,  and  they  spread  their  garments  and  the 
branches  of  palm,  olive  and  fig  trees  in  the  way,  and  cried 
aloud,  "Hosanna,  Blessed  is  the  King  that  cometh  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord."  It  was  no  premeditated  insurrection 
or  rebellion  against  the  Roman  authority.  It  was  not  the 
triumphant  entrance  of  a  conqueror  clothed  in  armor  and 
seated  on  a  war  horse;  it  was  the  coming  of  Zion's 
meek,  but  mightiest  King,  seated  on  a  young  ass.  No 
man  had  planned  it,  but  God  had  decreed  it,  and  prophets 
had  proclaimed  it  hundreds  of  years  before  it  occurred. 
There  was  intense  excitement.  A  few,  no  doubt,  felt 
themselves  stirred  by  some  great,  undefined  hope ;  many 
were  moved  by  intense  but  blind  enthusiasm,  and  a  few 
looked  on  with  uncontrollable  indignation.  Some  of  these 
last  came  to  Jesus  and  asked  him  to  rebuke  his  disciples, 
but  he  replied,  "If  these  shall  hold  their  peace,  the  stones 
will  cry  out." 

Was  Jesus  deceived  and  deluded  by  this  sudden  out- 
burst of  enthusiasm  ?  Did  he  imagine  that  the  danger  was 
averted,  and  that  he  might  yet  escape  from  his  enemies 
at  Jerusalem?  Let  the  evangelist  answer,  as  he  describes 
what  occurred  when  the  procession  came  around  the 
Mount  of  Olives  and  looked  upon  Jerusalem.  Other 
evangelists  describe  the  unrestrained  enthusiasm  of  the 
multitude,  but  Luke  says  that  when  Jesus  saw  the  city, 
he  wept  over  it,  saying,  "If  thou  hadst  known  in  this  day, 
even  thou,  the  things  that  belong  unto  peace!  but  now 
they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes." 

Jesus  knew  that  this  scene  on  Olivet  was  but  the  ful- 
fillment of  a  prophecy;  he  knew,  also,  that  the  other 
prophecies  concerning  himself  would  be   fulfilled.     He 


38o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

foresaw  that  some  of  those  who  were  now  shouting,  "Ho- 
sanna,"  would  soon  join  in  the  cry,  "Crucify  him."  His 
prophetic  eye  took  in  that  more  distant  future,  that  day 
of  Judgment  when  Jerusalem  should  be  besieged  by  great 
Roman  armies  and  so  utterly  destroyed  that  one  stone 
should  not  be  left  upon  another.  This  prediction  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  accented  with  tears  and  sobs,  was  liter- 
ally fulfilled  when  the  Roman  army,  under  Titus,  was 
compelled  by  Jewish  fanaticism,  not  only  to  destroy  the 
city  and  the  temple,  but  to  almost  exterminate  the  inhabit- 
ants of  Jerusalem.  Jesus  was  not  deluded  by  the  en- 
thusiasm of  the  fickle  populace,  for  he  knew  what  was  in 
man,  and  he  knew  also  the  divine  purpose  that  involved 
his  own  death  on  the  cross  and  the  destruction  of  the 
temple. 

Jesus  entered  the  Holy  City  amid  the  rejoicings  of  the 
multitude  that  accompanied  him.  His  weeping  over  the 
doomed  city  quieted  their  enthusiasm,  and,  instead  of 
proclaiming  him  "the  King  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord,"  as  they  had  done  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  they 
said,  "This  is  the  prophet  Jesus,  from  Nazareth  of  Gali- 
lee," and,  when  they  came  to  the  foot  of  Mount  Moriah, 
the  procession  dissolved  in  order  to  make  the  necessary 
preparation  for  entering  the  temple. 

When  Jesus  entered  the  temple,  his  righteous  indig- 
nation was  kindled,  as  it  had  been  at  the  beginning  of  his 
public  ministry  when  he  found  his  Father's  house  had 
been  made  a  mere  market  place,  a  house  of  merchandise. 
It  is  probable  that  his  cleansing  of  the  temple  at  the  be- 
ginning of  his  ministry  had  restrained  avarice  and  cove- 
tousness  for  a  time,  but  three^years  had  elapsed,  and  the 
lesson  had  been  forgotten.  The  old  sacrilegious  customs 
had  been  resumed.  Multitudes  were  selling  and  buying 
within  the  sacred  precincts.  Again  the  Lord  of  the  temple 


THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK      381 

came  suddenly  to  his  temple  and  cleansed  it,  casting  out 
all  who  sold  and  bought,  overthrowing  the  tables  of  the 
money  changers  and  saying,  "It  is  written,  my  Father's 
house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer,  but  ye  have  made 
it  a  den  of  robbers." 

The  chief  priests  and  other  rulers  of  the  Jews  had  been 
discussing  the  question  whether  Jesus  would  dare  to 
come  to  the  passover  feast,  and  had  issued  orders  that  if 
any  one  knew  where  he  was,  he  should  make  it  known  in 
order  that  they  might  arrest  him.  These  rulers  both 
feared  and  hated  Jesus,  and,  no  doubt,  some  of  them  would 
have  been  satisfied  if  they  could  have  so  intimidated  him 
as  to  have  prevented  his  coming  to  Jerusalem.  But, 
while  they  were  speaking  of  him  as  though  he  were  a 
fugitive  seeking  concealment,  he  suddenly  appeared  and 
put  an  end  to  the  sacrilegious  traffic  that  they  had  sanc- 
tioned. The  high  priest's  family  and  other  Jewish  rulers 
had  a  financial  interest  in  this  temple  traffic  that  Jesus 
interrupted,  but  they  did  not  dare  to  oppose  him  or  chal- 
lenge his  authority  because  they  feared  the  people. 

In  immediate  connection  with  his  account  of  the  cleans- 
ing of  the  temple,  Matthew  tells  us  that  the  blind  and  the 
lame  came  to  Jesus  in  the  temple,  and  that  he  healed  them ; 
and  adds,  "When  the  chief  priests  and  the  scribes  saw 
the  wonderful  things  that  he  did,  and  the  children  that 
were  crying  in  the  temple,  and  saying,  "Hosanna  to  the 
Son  of  David,"  they  were  moved  with  indignation,  and 
said  unto  him,  "Hearest  thou  what  these  are  saying  ?"  To 
this  question  Jesus  replied,  "Yea ;  did  ye  never  read,  Out 
of  the  mouth  of  babes  and  sucklings  thou  hast  perfected 
praise?" 

In  all  this  we  have  a  good  illustration  of  the  diflference 
between  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  spirit  of  these 
Jewish  rulers.    Jesus  was  filled  with  indignation  when  he 


382  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

saw  the  temple  profaned  by  covetous,  dishonest  traffic 
that  was  sanctioned  by  the  Jewish  rulers.  The  Jewish 
rulers  were  filled  with  indignation  when  they  saw  Jesus 
healing  the  lame  and  the  blind,  and  when  they  heard  the 
children  reechoing  the  glad  cry  that  had  been  heard  that 
morning  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  "Hosanna  to  the  Son  of 
David." 

If  we  would  form  any  adequate  picture  of  the  scene  at 
the  temple  that  afternoon,  we  must  remember  that  nearly 
three  million  people  were  assembled  at  Jerusalem  at  this 
passover  feast.  Pilate,  the  Roman  Governor,  with  a 
strong  guard  of  soldiers,  had  come  from  Caesarea  and  was 
anxiously  guarding  against  riots  and  insurrection.  Her- 
od, Tetrarch  of  Galilee,  was  also  there  to  make  political 
capital  out  of  his  religious  professions.  For  three  years 
Jesus  had  been  teaching  and  working  miracles  and  his 
fame  had  gone  abroad  so  that  the  whole  Jewish  nation 
seemed  like  a  slumbering  volcano.  Jesus  was  teaching  in 
the  temple,  his  enemies  were  conspiring  for  his  destruc- 
tion, and  only  divine  wisdom  knew  what  the  outcome 
would  be.  The  prophet  from  Nazareth  was  the  great 
center  of  interest  and  the  great  topic  of  conversation. 
He  had  mortally  offended  the  Jewish  rulers  by  exposing 
their  selfishness  and  hypocrisy,  by  throwing  the  light  of 
truth  on  their  false  traditions,  and  by  interfering  with 
their  covetous  sacrilege.  He  had  kindled  the  hopes  of 
the  common  people  by  his  wondrous  words  and  his  mighty 
works.  The  scene  on  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  in  the 
temple  indicated  such  possibilities  that  the  rulers  were 
afraid  to  make  any  decided  move,  but  they  said  amongst 
themselves,  "Behold,  how  ye  prevail  nothing;  lo,  the 
world  is  gone  after  him." 

It  was  probably  on  the  evening  of  that  first  day  of  the 
week,  after  the  triumphant  entrance  into  the  city,  and 


THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK      383 

after  the  cleansing  of  the  temple,  that  a  company  of 
Greeks,  who  had  come  to  Jerusalem  to  worship,  sought 
an  interview  with  Jesus.  Jesus  was  teaching  in  the 
temple,  and  these  Greeks  came  to  Philip,  who  after  con- 
ferring with  Andrew,  came  and  told  Jesus.  Whether 
these  Greeks  were  introduced  to  Jesus  we  are  not  told; 
but  the  record  indicates  that  their  request  gave  a  new 
direction  to  his  discourse.  When  he  was  a  little  child, 
wise  men  from  the  East  had  brought  their  gifts  and  had 
worshipped  the  new  born  King  of  the  Jews;  and,  now. 
as  he  drew  near  to  the  end  of  his  mortal  life,  the  coming 
of  these  Greeks  from  the  West  seemed  to  fix  his  thoughts 
on  his  great  mission,  and  he  said,  "The  hour  is  come  that 
the  Son  of  man  should  be  glorified.  Verily,  verily  I  say 
unto  you,  except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  earth  and 
die  it  abideth  by  itself  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it  beareth  much 
fruit.  He  that  loveth  his  life  loseth  it ;  and  he  that  hateth 
his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal.  If 
any  man  serve  me,  let  him  follow  me ;  and  where  I  am, 
there  shall  also  my  servant  be ;  if  any  man  serve  me,  him 
will  my  Father  honour." 

In  these  words,  Jesus  reveals  the  philosophy  of  life  in 
this  sin-cursed  world.  Death  is  the  essential  condition 
of  life.  Self-saving  is  only  possible  through  willing  self- 
sacrifice,  and  selfishness  is  suicide.  Having  said  this, 
Jesus  fixed  his  thoughts  on  the  part  that  he  had  accepted 
in  the  outworking  of  this  philosophy  of  life,  for  he  said, 
"Now  is  my  soul  troubled,  and  what  shall  I  say?  Father 
save  me  from  this  hour."  He  saw  the  shadow  of  the 
cross,  and  shrunk  from  its  horrors.  But  then  he  remem- 
bered that  for  this  cause  he  had  become  incarnate  and  had 
come  to  that  hour  of  agony,  and  he  exclaimed,  "Father, 
glorify  thy  name." 


384  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

In  answer  to  this  prayer  there  came  an  audible  re- 
sponse from  heaven,  saying,  "I  have  both  glorified  it  and 
will  glorify  it  again."  Some  of  those  who  stood  by  and 
heard  the  voice,  said  it  had  thundered,  and  others  declared 
that  an  angel  had  spoken  to  him,  but  Jesus  said,  "This 
voice  hath  not  come  for  my  sake,  but  for  your  sakes." 

As  Jesus  heard  the  voice  from  heaven,  he  seemed  to  see 
the  triumph  that  should  follow  his  sufferings  and  death. 
He  had  met  the  prince  of  this  world  at  the  beginning  of 
his  public  ministry,  and  had  resisted  his  temptations,  and 
now  he  saw  the  complete  overthrow  of  this  enemy,  and 
exclaimed,  "Now  is  the  judgment  of  this  world;  now 
shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out.  And  I,  if  I 
be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  my- 
self." He  was  going  to  the  cross,  but  he  went  there  to 
fight  the  battle  of  his  people,  and  to  secure  their  liberty 
from  the  dominion  of  Satan.  It  was  the  crisis  in  the 
world's  history.  The  prince  of  this  world  was  coming 
and  had  nothing  in  him.  There  would  be  no  compromise 
in  the  last  struggle,  the  prince  of  this  world  must  be  cast 
out,  and  Christ  on  the  cross  would  be  the  great  center  of 
attraction,  drawing  all  men  unto  himself.  He  had  been 
proclaimed  the 'Saviour  of  the  world  ;  he  had  proclaimed 
himself  the  Light  of  the  world,  and  now  he  declared  that, 
if  he  were  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  he  would  become  the 
great  center  of  beneficent  attraction. 

The  Jews  were  bewildered  by  what  Jesus  said  about 
being  lifted  up  from  the  earth.  He  spoke  of  it  before, 
saying  that,  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness, so  the  Son  of  man  must  be  lifted  up.  They  could 
not  fathom  our  Lord's  meaning  and  they  said,  "Who  is 
this  Son  of  man?" 

We  are  not  left  in  doubt  as  to  the  meaning  of  words 
that  puzzled  the  Jews,  for  the  inspired  evangelist  inter- 


THE  FIRST  DAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK      385 

prets  them,  declaring  that  Jesus  said  this  to  signify  what 
death  he  should  die.  In  the  light  of  what  took  place 
a  few  days  afterwards  we  cannot  but  see  in  these  words 
a  definite  prophecy  that  Jesus  Christ  dying  on  the  cross 
would  be  the  great  center  of  attraction  for  a  lost  world. 
Nor  can  we  fail  to  see  in  subsequent  history,  and  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  world,  a  marvelous  fulfillment 
of  this  strange  prediction.  Christ  on  the  cross  is  to-day 
the  great  center  of  beneficent  attraction  for  men  of 
every  race  and  nation.    Millions  are  singing  to-day, 

"In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time; 
All  the  light  of  sacred   story 
Gathers  round  its  head  sublime." 

On  the  cross  Jesus  Christ  won  and  established  a  king- 
dom world-wide  and  eternal,  a  kingdom  built  on  the  solid 
rock  of  self-sacrificing  love.  He  saw  his  death  on  the 
cross,  not  as  a  defeat,  but  as  a  complete  victory  over  the 
prince  of  this  world.  By  his  being  lifted  up  on  the  cross, 
the  prince  of  this  world  was  cast  out. 

Having  completed  this  discourse  and  exhorted  his  hear- 
ers to  walk  in  the  light  during  the  little  time  that  the  light 
was  to  be  with  them,  Jesus  was  hidden  from  his  enemies 
by  going  out  into  the  Mount  of  Olives  into  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Bethany.  While  he  was  teaching  in  the  daytime 
his  enemies  were  afraid  to  have  him  arrested,  for  the  peo- 
ple, "all  hung  upon  him  listening."  Had  he  remained  in 
the  city  during  the  night,  he  would  probably  have  been  ar- 
rested. It  is  probable  that  he  did  not  spend  his  nights  at 
the  home  of  his  friends  in  Bethany,  but  on  the  Mount  of 
Olives  in  that  neighbourhood.  His  enemies  were  afraid 
of  him  in  day  light,  and  he  did  not  put  himself  in  their 
power  during  the  night,  for  his  hour  was  not  yet  come. 


LVI 
MONDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK 

Mat.  21 :  i8.  "Now  in  the  morning  as  he  returned  to  the  city  he 
hungered.  And  seeing  a  fig  tree  by  the  wayside,  he  came  to  it, 
and  found  nothing  thereon  but  leaves  only ;  and  he  saith  unto  it, 
Let  there  be  no  fruit  from  thee  henceforward  forever." 

Mat.  21 :  18-22:  14;    Mark  11:  12-14,  19-12:  12;   Luke  20:  1-18.) 

TWO  considerations  lead  us  to  conclude  that  the 
events  treated  in  this  chapter  occurred  on  Mon- 
day rather  than  on  Tuesday.  First,  it  is  evident 
that  none  of  the  evangelists  narrate  these  events  in  the  ex- 
act order  in  which  they  occurred,  and  we  are  left  to  deter- 
mine the  probable  order  by  comparing  the  different  narra- 
tives, and  considering  the  circumstances.  Second,  if  we 
place  the  events  on  Tuesday,  we  find  so  many  events  and 
discourses  crowded  into  the  ministry  of  that  day  as  to 
more  than  fill  the  entire  day,  while  we  leave  Christ  at 
Jerusalem  on  Monday  with  no  record  of  his  doing  or 
saying  anything,  unless  we  assume  that  this  was  the  day 
of  the  second  cleansing  of  the  temple.  Our  placing  the 
cleansing  of  the  temple  on  "Palm  Sunday,"  and  these 
events  on  Monday,  does  no  violance  to  any  of  the  in- 
spired narratives,  and  so  distributes  the  incidents  and  dis- 
courses as  to  fill  all  the  days  and  not  unduly  crowd  one 
day  while  others  are  left  unfilled.  The  reasonableness  of 
this  statement  will  appear  as  we  proceed. 

At  the  close  of  the  first  exciting  day  of  Passion  week, 
Jesus  was  hidden  from  his  enemies  by  going  out  into  the 

386 


MONDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  387 

Mount  of  Olives.  He  spent  the  night  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Bethany,  if  not  in  the  village,  but  it  is  probable  that  the 
reasons  that  kept  him  from  staying  in  Jerusalem  during 
the  night  would  prevent  his  going  to  the  house  of  Mary, 
Martha  and  Lazarus,  where  his  enemies  might  expect  to 
find  him. 

In  other  great  crises  Jesus  spent  a  large  part  of  his 
nights  alone  with  the  Father,  and  it  is  probable  that  he 
spent  this  night  in  the  same  way.  However  this  may  be, 
Monday  morning  found  him  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem 
without  breakfast,  for  "he  hungered."  As  he  came  out 
from  Bethany  he  saw  in  the  distance,  probably  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Bethphage,  "the  house  of  figs,"  a  fig  tree 
having  leaves.  It  was  not  the  season  for  ripe  figs  but  it 
was  not  the  season  for  leaves,  and  the  presence  of  leaves 
indicated  that  there  might  be  fruit.  When  Jesus  came  to 
the  tree  "he  found  nothing  but  leaves,"  and  he  said,  "No 
man  eat  fruit  from  thee  henceforward  forever."  Mat- 
thew says,  "immediately  the  fig  tree  withered  away," 
while  Mark  says,  "as  they  passed  in  the  morning  they  saw 
the  big  tree  withered  away  from  the  roots,"  and  that  Peter 
called  the  Master's  attention  to  it. 

There  is  no  real  conflict  between  these  two  narratives. 
Mark  gives  the  more  minute  and  detailed  account.  There 
may  have  been  instantaneous  evidence  of  the  beginning 
to  wither  that  would  fully  warrant  the  statement  of 
Matthew,  while  the  complete  withering  of  the  root  and 
branch,  seen  the  next  morning,  would  be  adapted  to  sug- 
gest the  remark  of  Peter  and  lead  to  the  discourse  of  our 
Lord  concerning  the  power  of  faith. 

This  miracle  of  Jesus  has  been  objected  to  by  irrever- 
ent critics  who  claim  that  it  was  an  exhibition  of  un- 
reasonable impatience.  The  narratives  of  the  evangelists 
do  not  warrant  any  such  criticism.    The  tone,  the  manner 


388  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  motive  for  this  miracle  are  so  evident  that  no  one  who 
believes  the  record  would  think  of  making  any  objection. 
He  who  refused  to  command  stones  to  become  bread  when 
he  had  fasted  forty  days,  would  not  be  moved  to  anger 
by,  and  would  not  seek  to  wreak  his  vengeance  on  an  in- 
animate object.  No  such  thought  is  possible  to  the  bC" 
liever,  or  to  any  one  who  in  any  degree  understands  the 
mind  and  spirit  of  Jesus  the  Christ.  The  leaves  on  this 
barren  fig  tree,  like  the  flowers  in  the  field,  afforded  spe- 
cial opportunity  to  teach  his  disciples  important  lessons. 
It  was  not  the  special  season  for  figs,  but  figs  are  found 
on  the  trees  in  this  region  at  all  seasons,  and  the  presence 
of  leaves  on  this  tree  indicated  figs,  so  that  it  became  a 
fit  emblem  of  the  hypocrite.  It  was  an  apt  emblem  of 
Israel,  the  barren  fig  tree  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  and 
this  judgment  on  the  fig  tree  was  adapted  to  impress  the 
disciples  with  God's  hatred  of  hypocrisy. 

The  miracle  was  adapted  and  was  used  to  teach  a  great 
lesson  as  to  the  omnipotence  of  faith.  No  possible  ques- 
tion of  Jesus'  right  to  end  the  existence  of  the  fig  tree  in 
this  way  could  arise  in  the  mind  of  one  who  recognized 
his  power  to  perform  the  miracle.  If  the  owner  of  an 
orchard  can  cut  down  the  barren  tree  as  a  cumberer  of  the 
ground,  if  God  can  level  the  forest  by  the  tornado,  cannot 
our  Lord,  by  the  utterance  of  a  word,  put  an  end  to  the 
existence  of  this  fruitless  tree  In  order  to  teach  his  dis- 
ciples great  and  important  lessons?  In  this  miracle  the 
disciples  see  with  astonishment  their  Master's  power,  but, 
by  and  by,  they  see  symbolized  the  judgment  awaiting  the 
barren  tree  of  Judaism,  and  they  are  taught  the  unlimited 
possibilities  of  the  prayer  of  faith,  and  the  necessity  for 
the  spirit  of  forgiveness. 

When  our  Lord  returned  to  Jerusalem  and  was  walk- 
ing in  the  temple,  a  deputation  of  chief  priests  and  scribes 


MONDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  389 

met  him  and  said,  "By  what  authority  doest  thou  these 
things."  or,  "who  gave  thee  this  authority  to  do  these 
things?"  The  special  things  referred  to,  no  doubt,  were 
the  things  connected  with  the  cleansing  of  the  temple. 
When  Jesus  overthrew  the  tables  of  the  money  changers 
and  put  a  stop  to  the  disgraceful  and  dishonest  traffic  in 
the  temple,  these  rulers  had  not  dared  to  question  his 
authority,  but  they  probably  conferred  together  and  their 
courage  revived,  and  they  came  to  Jesus  to  challenge  his 
right  to  interfere.  They  expected  an  answer  that  could  be 
used  against  him,  for  they  were  conspiring  for  his  destruc- 
tion; but  they  were  disappointed.  Instead  of  giving 
them  an  answer,  he  asked  them  a  question,  saying,  "The 
baptism  of  John,  whence  was  it?  from  heaven,  or  from 
men?" 

This  was  a  pertinent  question.  They  assumed  to  ques- 
tion him  as  to  his  teachings  and  acts,  because  they  claimed 
authority  in  matters  of  religion.  If  they  really  had  au- 
thority and  were  competent  judges,  they  must  be  able  to 
inform  the  people  as  to  the  authority  of  the  teachings  of 
John  the  Baptist.  Jesus  agreed  that,  if  they  would  an- 
swer his  question  concerning  John,  he  would  answer  their 
question  concerning  himself.  He  revealed  their  true  char- 
acter by  putting  them  in  a  dilemma.  Instead  of  being 
honest  leaders  of  the  people,  they  were  mere  time-servers 
and  self-seekers.  They  would  not  say  anything  that  they 
thought  would  render  them  unpopular,  and  they  did  not 
dare  to  deny  that  John  was  a  true  prophet  because  they 
feared  the  people  who  reckoned  John  a  prophet.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  knew  that  if  they  confessed  that  John 
was  a  true  prophet,  they  would  be  compelled  to  confess 
Jesus  as  the  Christ  to  whom  John  bore  witness.  They 
were  not  willing  to  accept  either  horn  of  the  dilemma, 
and   said,   "We   know   not."     Our  Lord   then   replied, 


390  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

"Neither  tell  I  you  by  what  authority  I  do  these  things." 
It  was  a  fair  answer.  They  either  were  authoritative 
judges  of  religious  teachers,  or  they  were  not.  If  they 
were,  they  could  assign  to  John  his  place;  and,  if  they 
could  not  do  that,  they  had  no  right  to  question  Christ.  If 
they  had  come  to  Christ  as  honest  seekers  after  truth,  his 
answer  would  have  been  very  different ;  but  this  answer 
was  designed  and  adapted  to  expose  their  true  character 
and  their  false  pretenses  as  religious  leaders. 

In  immediate  connection  with  his  record  of  this  discom- 
fiture of  chief  priests  and  rulers,  the  evangelist  Matthew 
reports  a  parable  so  pertinent  to  the  occasion  that  we  may 
regard  it  as  the  conclusion  of  his  answer. 

In  the  parable  a  man  has  two  sons.  Coming  to  the  first, 
and  addressing  him  in  the  words  of  affection,  he  bids  him 
go  and  work  in  the  vineyard.  The  son  answers  diso- 
bediently and  disrespectfully,  "I  will  not,"  but  he  after- 
wards repents  and  goes.  The  other  son  is  addressed  in  the 
same  affectionate  language,  and  replies  promptly  and  obe- 
diently, "I  will  sir,"  but  does  not  go.  Having  spoken  the 
parable,  Jesus  said  to  these  religious  rulers  of  the  people, 
"Whether  of  the  two  did  the  will  of  his  father?"  There 
could  be  but  one  answer,  and  they  gave  it,  as  they  said, 
"the  first."  Had  they  been  as  cautious  as  they  were  in 
their  answer  concerning  John's  authority,  they  would 
have  said,  "We  cannot  tell,"  for  by  their  answer  they 
were  convicted.  Like  the  second  son,  they  had  made 
great  professions  of  religion,  while  the  publicans  and  har- 
lots had  professed  to  be  irreligious  ;  yet,  when  John  came 
to  them  in  the  way  of  righteousness,  preaching  and  per- 
sonifying righteousness,  they  rejected  his  teachings,  while 
publicans  and  harlots  believed  him.  They  were  acting  like 
the  first  son,  and  Jesus  said,  "Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  the 


MONDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  391 

publicans  and  harlots  go  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  be- 
fore you." 

The  teaching  of  the  parable  could  not  be  misunder- 
stood. The  publicans  and  harlots  do  not  enter  the  kingdom 
because  they  are  publicans  and  harlots,  but  because  they 
repent.  They  do  not  break  any  promise  by  turning  from 
a  life  of  sin  to  a  life  of  holiness,  and  they  are  saved  by 
their  inconsistency.  The  great  lesson  of  the  parable  is 
for  those  who  profess  to  be  faithful  and  are  unfaithful. 
They  violate  their  covenant  and  add  falsehood  to  diso- 
bedience. The  fig  tree  with  leaves,  but  with  no  fruit,  is, 
not  only  worthless,  but  deludes  and  disappoints ;  and  the 
man  who  makes  a  profession  of  religion  is  worse  than  dis- 
obedient and  .worthless — a  professed  laborer  in  the  Lord's 
vineyard,  he  deludes  and  deceives  those  who  depend  on 
him. 

The  parable  of  the  two  sons  is  not  reported  by  any  of 
the  evangelists  except  Matthew,  but  it  is  followed  by  the 
parable  of  the  wicked  husbandman,  which  is  reported  by 
Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke.  The  parable  of  the  two  sons 
seems  to  lead  to  this  more  elaborate  parable.  The  para- 
ble' of  the  two  sons  puts  unbelieving,  impenitent  Jewish 
rulers  in  bad  contrast  with  believing,  penitent  publicans 
and  harlots ;  but  this  parable  paints  in  still  darker  colors 
the  murderous  spirit  of  these  Jewish  rulers  who  have  al- 
ready planned  and  conspired  for  the  destruction  of  Jesus. 

In  this  parable  a  householder  plants  a  vineyard,  sets 
a  hedge  about  it,  erects  a  tower,  digs  a  wine  press,  and 
does  everything  necessary  to  warrant  him  in  expecting 
abundant  fruit.  He  then  lets  it  out  to  husbandmen  and 
goes  into  another  country.  When  the  time  to  collect 
revenues  has  come,  he  sends  servants  to  receive  of  the 
fruits ;  but  the  husbandmen  beat  one,  kill  another  and 
stone  a  third.     Other  servants  are  then  sent  with  like 


392  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

results,  and  the  long  suffering  owner  sends  his  son,  saying, 
"They  will  reverence  my  son."  When  the  husbandmen 
see  the  son,  they  say  amongst  themselves,  "This  is  the 
heir ;  come,  let  us  kill  him,  and  take  his  inheritance" ; 
and  this  they  do. 

Having  spoken  the  parable  Jesus  said,  "When,  there- 
fore, the  Lord  of  the  vineyard  shall  come,  what  will  he 
do  unto  those  husbandmen  ?"  All  who  hear  cry  out,  "He 
will  miserably  destroy  those  miserable  men,  and  will  let 
out  the  vineyard  to  other  husbandmen,  who  shall  render 
him  his  fruits  in  their  season."  David  did  not  answer 
the  parable  of  the  prophet  Nathan  with  more  righteous 
indignation,  and  David  was  not  more  clearly  convicted 
when  Nathan  said,  "Thou  are  the  man."  But  the  parable 
did  not  seem  to  be  understood  by  the  rulers  until  Jesus 
said  unto  them,  "Did  ye  never  read  in  the  Scriptures, 

The  stone  which  tlrc  builders  rejected, 

The  same  was  made  the  head  of  the  corner; 

This  was  from  the  Lord, 

And  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes? 

Therefore,  I  say  unto  you,  The  kingdom  of  God  shall  be 
taken  away  from  you,  and  shall  be  given  unto  a  nation 
bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof." 

Israel  was  God's  vineyard.  He  had  planted  the  vine- 
yard and  hedged  it  in ;  he  had  sent  prophets,  whom  they 
had  rejected  and  beaten  and  slain,  and  now  when  he  had 
sent  his  Son,  they  were  planning  to  kill  him.  The  analogy 
seems  complete;  but  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees 
seemed  as  unconscious  that  they  were  looking  at  a  portrait 
of  themselves  and  of  the  Jewish  nation  as  was  David 
listening  to  Nathan.  To  David,  Nathan  needed  to  say, 
"Thou  are  the  man" ;  and,  to  these  Jewish  rulers,  Jesus 


MONDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  393 

needed  to  say,  "The  kingdom  of  God  shall  be  taken  from 
you."    Then  they  perceive  that  he  was  speaking  of  them. 

When  the  Pharisees  and  chief  priests  perceived  that 
Jesus  v^as  describing  them,  and  that  they  had  pronounced 
their  own  condemnation,  they  would  have  laid  hold  on 
him,  but  were  restrained  by  their  fear  of  the  people,  and 
Jesus  proceeded  with  his  discourse,  speaking  to  them  in 
the  parables  of  the  marriage  of  the  King's  son  and  of  the 
wedding  garments.  These  two  parables  blend  into  one, 
but  the  first  is  a  complete  picture  in  itself,  and  serves  as 
the  setting  for  the  second. 

This  parable  of  the  marriage  of  the  king's  son  resem- 
bles in  its  general  outlines  the  parable  of  the  great  sup- 
per or  of  the  excuses,  recorded  in  the  fourteenth  chapter 
of  Luke.  In  that  parable  more  prominence  is  given  to  the 
quality  of  the  excuses,  and  the  feast  is  not  a  marriage 
feast,  and  is  not  given  by  a  king,  as  in  this  case.  There 
are  other  striking  contrasts,  as  well  as  resemblances.  This 
parable  is  linked  in  thought  with  the  parable  of  the  wicked 
husbandmen.  In  the  parable  of  the  wicked  husbandmen 
the  son  of  the  owner  of  the  vineyard  is  murdered;  in 
this  parable,  the  invitations  are  treated  with  indifference 
and  contempt.  The  son  is  a  central  figure  in  both  para- 
bles. 

In  this  parable  a  king  makes  a  marriage  feast  for  his 
son;  first,  sending  out  his  invitations,  and  then,  at  the 
appointed  time,  sending  his  servants  to  call  them  that  were 
bidden.  The  invited  guests  refuse  to  come,  and  the  king 
then  sends  other  servants  to  announce  that  all  the  prepa- 
rations have  been  made  for  the  feast,  that  the  oxen  and 
fatlings  have  been  killed,  that  all  things  are  ready,  and  to 
say,  "Come  to  the  marriage  feast."  The  invitation  is  most 
urgent,  but  some  treat  It  with  indifference  and  go  their 
several  ways,  while  others  abuse  and  slay  the  messengers 


394  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

of  the  king.  This,  like  the  parable  of  the  wicked  hus- 
bandmen, presents  a  most  aggravating  picture,  but  our 
Lord,  instead  of  asking  his  hearers  to  pass  judgment  on 
the  rebels  who  have  treated  their  sovereign  with  such  con- 
tempt, goes  on  to  say,  "The  King  was  wroth ;  and  he  sent 
his  armies  and  destroyed  those  murderers  and  burned 
their  city."  After  the  royal  honour  has  been  vindicated 
and  justice  satisfied,  servants  are  again  sent  out  and  a 
general  invitation  is  given  to  all  who  could  be  found, 
wherever  they  could  be  found,  and  the  wedding  was  sup- 
plied with  guests. 

The  parable  was  prophetic,  and,  therefore,  not  so  easily 
understood  by  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.  In  the 
light  of  subsequent  history  its  application  to  the  Jewish 
people  is  most  evident.  They,  as  a  nation,  were  the  spe- 
cially invited  guests ;  they  treated  the  King  with  con- 
tempt, refusing  to  come  to  the  marriage  feast  of  his  Son, 
and  shamefully  treating  and  murdering  his  servants. 
Their  judgment  came,  and  Jerusalem,  their  holy  city,  was 
destroyed.  Nevertheless,  while  this  parable  described  the 
Jews,  it  had  a  wider  scope  than  the  Jewish  nation.  Men 
and  women,  born  and  reared  in  Christian  lands,  are  to- 
day treating  the  invitation  to  the  marriage  feast  with  in- 
difference. There  are  to-day  all  the  classes  that  are  seen 
in  the  parable.  One  goes  to  his  farm,  another  to  his 
merchandise,  and  others  persecute  the  servants  who  urge 
them  to  accept  the  King's  invitation.  The  judgment  on 
Jerusalem,  with  all  its  attendant  horrors,  was  only  a 
shadow  of  the  greater  judgment  of  those  who  reject  the 
great  salvation  that  the  gospel  offers. 

This  parable,  complete  in  itself,  prepares  the  way  for, 
and  becomes  part  of  another  parable  that  seems  peculiar- 
ly adapted  as  a  warning  to  the  gentiles.  When  the  in- 
vited guests  showed  their  unworthiness  by  failing  to  ap- 


MONDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  395 

predate  their  privileges,  the  servants  went  out  into  the 
highways  and  gathered  together  all  as  many  as  they 
found,  both  bad  and  good,  and  the  wedding  was  fur- 
nished with  guests.  But,  when  the  king  came  in  to  see 
the  guests,  he  found  one  who  did  not  have  a  wedding  gar- 
ment, and  he  said,  "Friend,  how  comest  thou  in  hither  not 
having  a  wedding  garment?"  The  man  was  speechless. 
He  could  offer  no  explanation  and  had  no  excuse.  Then 
the  king  said  to  the  servants,  "Bind  him  hand  and  foot, 
and  cast  him  into  outer  darkness ;  there  shall  be  weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth."  In  explanation  of  this  last  act  in 
the  parable,  our  Lord  added,  "Many  are  called,  but  few 
are  chosen." 

If  the  thought  of  unreasonable  severity  is  suggested  by 
reading  this  parable,  it  will  disappear  when  the  real  mean- 
ing is  recognized.  It  is  most  evident,  without  any  refer- 
ence to  the  custom  of  kings  providing  a  wedding  garment 
for  invited  guests,  that  this  parable  is  based  on  the  sup- 
position that  the  wedding  garment  was  offered  to,  or 
could  be  procured  by  every  guest,  and  that  the  failure  to 
have  the  necessary  and  becoming  wedding  garment  was 
the  result  of  lack  of  reverence  for  the  king  and  lack  of 
appreciation  of  the  feast.  It  showed  peculiar  disrespect 
for  the  king.  His  standard  had  not  been  lowered  on  ac- 
count of  the  disrespect  shown  him  by  the  guests  that  had 
refused  to  come,  and  this  man's  coming  without  the  wed- 
ding garment  was  as  disrespectful  as  the  refusal  of  those 
who  were  first  invited. 

There  is  in  the  parable  a  great  and  impressive  practical 
lesson  for  the  Christian  church.  The  failure  of  the  Jews 
to  appreciate  God's  goodness  to  them,  has  not  lowered 
God's  standard  of  admission  to  his  kingdom  and  to  the 
marriage  supper.  He  is  condescending,  but  not  at  the 
expense  of  his  holiness.    The  sinfulness  of  others  affords 


396  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

no  excuse  for  our  presumption.  God's  goodness  in  pro- 
viding salvation  for  all  who  will  accept,  for  good  and  bad, 
Jew  and  Gentile,  will  only  aggravate  the  sin  of  those  who 
refuse  to  accept  the  robe  of  righteousness  that  he  has 
provided.  If  any  one  dreams  that,  since  so  many  men 
are  notoriously  wicked,  God  must  lower  his  standard  in 
order  to  save  any,  let  him  learn  from  this  parable  that  God 
sits  on  no  precarious  throne,  that  the  fear  of  the  Lord  is 
still  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  Publicans  and  sinners, 
gentiles,  as  well  as  Jews,  are  invited  to  the  gospel  feast, 
and,  if  they  come  with  humble,  penitent  gratitude,  they 
will  be  made  welcome;  but  there  is  no  lowering  of  the 
standard  of  holiness.  "Many  are  called  but  few  are 
chosen."  The  urgent  appeals  of  evangelists  to  the  un- 
converted in  Christian  lands,  the  full,  free  and  continuous 
offers  of  the  gospel  to  the  heathen  world  do  not  warrant 
the  presumptuous  conclusion  that  God  has  lowered  his 
standard  of  holiness.  This  parable  of  the  wedding  gar- 
ment reafRrms  the  great  truth  that  "without  holiness  no 
man  shall  see  the  Lord." 


LVII 
TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK 

Matthew  22:  15.  "Then  went  the  Pharisees  and  took  counsel 
how  they  might  ensnare  him  in  his  talk." 

( Matthew  22  :  15-25 :  56 ;  Mark  12 :  13-13 :  Z7  '>  Luke  20 :  20-21 : 
38.) 

THE  events  of  Tuesday,  the  last  great  day  of  our 
Lord's  public  ministry,  include  his  discourses  to 
the  multitude  in  the  temple  during  the  day,  and 
his  discourse  to  his  own  disciples  out  on  the  Mount  of 
Olives  during  the  evening. 

If  we  had  no  other  source  of  information  than  the 
gospel  by  Mark,  we  might  feel  constrained  to  include  in 
the  events  of  Tuesday  the  Pharisees'  challenge  of  Christ's 
authority,  and  the  parables  of  the  wicked  husbandmen, 
the  marriage  feast  and  the  wedding  garment;  but  the 
evangelist  Matthew,  after  recording  the  parable  of  the 
wedding  garment,  says,  "Then  went  the  Pharisees  and 
took  counsel  how  they  might  ensnare  him  in  his  talk." 
This  indicates  that  considerable  time,  probably  a  night, 
intervened  between  the  delivery  of  that  parable  and  the 
events  that  are  reported  as  taking  place  afterwards. 
Mark  also  intimates  that  some  time  had  elapsed  between 
the  delivery  of  the  parable  of  the  wicked  husbandmen 
and  the  events  that  he  reports  as  taking  place  afterwards, 
for  he  says,  "The  Pharisees  left  him  and  went  their 
way  when  they  discovered  that  Jesus  had  spoken  of 

397 


398  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

them,"  We,  therefore,  have  assumed  that  the  parables 
of  the  wicked  husbandmen  and  of  the  marriage  feast 
were  spoken  on  Monday;  that  a  conference  of  Christ's 
enemies  was  held  on  Monday  night,  and  that  this  con- 
ference made  some  definite  plans  for  obtaining  evidence 
against  Jesus  that  would  enable  them  to  destroy  him. 
The  result  of  this  conference  appeared  Tuesday  morn- 
ing when  the  young  disciples  of  the  Pharisees  and  He- 
rodians  came  to  Jesus,  saying,  "Master,  we  know  that 
thou  art  true,  and  carest  not  for  any  one ;  for  thou  re- 
gardest  not  the  person  of  men,  but  of  a  truth  teachest 
the  way  of  God ;  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute  unto  Caesar 
or  not?    Shall  we  give  or  shall  we  not  give?" 

Here  was  a  cunningly  devised  snare.  These  were 
young  men,  and  it  seemed  befitting  that  they  should 
seek  the  right  answer  to  this  mooted  question.  They 
were  young,  and  they  belonged  to  different  parties ;  an 
answer  that  would  approve  the  position  of  the  Herodians 
would  condemn  the  position  of  the  Pharisees ;  they 
would  not,  therefore,  be  suspected  of  conspiring  together 
against  the  Teacher  to  whom  they  had  appealed.  He 
might  certainly  infer  that  he  could  depend  on  the  sup- 
port of  those  whose  position  he  approved,  even  if  the 
other  party  should  be  arrayed  against  him. 

If  it  were  possible  to  do  so,  one  would  gladly  believe 
that  these  young  men  did  not  know  the  purpose  for 
which  they  had  been  sent  to  Jesus.  That  young  men 
should  be  such  adepts  in  political  and  ecclesiastical 
treachery;  that  young  men  should  come  to  a  great  and 
conscientious  teacher,  commending  his  courage  and 
truthfulness,  in  order  to  ensnare  him ;  that  young  men 
should  be  scheming  hypocrites,  one  would  not  believe  if 
it  were  possible  to  believe  otherwise.  But  we  are  shut 
up  to  this  conclusion ;   for  Jesus  knew  their  motives  and 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  399 

said,  "Why  tempt  ye  me,  ye  hypocrites?"  He  was  not 
deceived  by  their  conspiracy,  and  was  not  ensnared  by 
their  treachery.  He  knew  what  was  in  man,  and  saw 
in  these  young  men  that  fatal  malady,  hypocrisy.  Nev- 
ertheless, he  answered  their  question  in  such  a  way  as 
to  escape  their  snare,  and  yet  give  a  lesson  that  will 
enable  true  disciples  in  all  ages  to  see  their  relations 
to  the  civil  governments  under  which  they  live.  First, 
he  said  to  the  inquirers,  "Show  me  the  tribute  money;" 
and,  when  they  had  brought  him  a  penny,  he  said, 
"Whose  is  this  image  and  superscription?"  They  an- 
swered, "Caesar's."  Then  he  said,  "Render  therefore 
unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's;  and  unto  God 
the  things  that  are  God's." 

This  answer  did  not  evade  the  question.  The  Jews 
were  living  under  and  enjoying  the  protection  of  the 
Roman  government,  and  they  were  under  obligation  to 
bear  a  fair  share  of  the  burdens  of  civil  government. 
They  should  render  to  Caesar  the  things  that  were 
Caesar's.  On  the  other  hand,  their  paying  taxes  and 
obeying  the  laws  of  the  civil  government  did  not  re- 
lease them  from  their  obligations  to  God.  Their  duty  to 
Caesar  would  not  conflict  with  their  duty  to  God.  If 
Caesar  commanded  them  to  disobey  God,  he  was  demand- 
ing what  was  not  Caesar's,  and  they  were  to  render  unto 
God  the  things  that  were  God's;  but,  so  long  as  it  was 
a  matter  of  paying  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  civil 
government,  whose  benefits  they  accepted  and  whose 
coin  they  used,  their  duty  to  Caesar  did  not  conflict  with 
their  duty  to  God. 

This  answer,  that  throws  a  flood  of  light  on  this  ques- 
tion whensoever  and  wheresoever  it  may  arise,  did  not 
afiford  any  ground  of  accusation  against  Jesus.  If  he 
had  said  that  it  was  unlawful  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar, 


40O  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

he  could  have  been  accused  of  rebellion  or  treason,  and 
this  accusation  was  actually  made  at  his  trial;  if  he 
had  said  that  it  was  lawful,  he  could  have  been  accused 
of  betraying  his  own  nation  and  joining  the  gentile 
oppressors  of  God's  peculiar  people.  The  answer  he 
gave  could  not  be  used  against  him  by  either  Jewish  rul- 
ers or  the  Roman  government. 

By  this  answer  Christ's  disciples  are  taught  to  bear 
cheerfully  their  full  share  of  all  the  necessary  burdens 
of  civil  government;  by  this  answer,  the  disciples  of 
Christ  are  taught  to  use  all  lawful  means  to  make  the 
government  under  which  they  live  honest,  just,  pure — a 
terror  to  evil  doers,  the  praise,  encouragement  and  pro- 
tection of  all  who  do  well,  the  ordinance  of  God  for  jus- 
tice. Only  in  this  way  can  they  render  to  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's  and  to  God  the  things  that  are 
God's.  The  man  who  neglects  or  refuses  to  perform  all 
his  political  duties  disobeys  Christ. 

After  the  disciples  of  the  Pharisees  and  Herodians 
had  heard  our  Lord's  answer  and  gone  away  astonished, 
defeated,  rebuked  and  instructed,  the  Sadducees  came 
to  him  with  a  question  that  seemed  designed  to  puzzle 
him  and  to  ridicule  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead.  It  was,  however,  a  question  that  only  revealed 
their  own  curious,  flippant,  self-complacent  ignorance. 
Like  the  disciples  of  the  Pharisees  and  Herodians,  they 
were  not  honest  seekers  after  truth  and  light ;  but,  un- 
like the  Pharisees,  they  were  disposed  to  ridicule  the 
great  doctrine  of  a  future  life  and  all  other  great  re- 
ligious truths.  They  were  not  therefore  so  bitterly  ar- 
rayed against  any  religious  teacher.  They  would  only 
become  the  deadly  enemies  of  Christ  when  they  dis- 
covered that  he  was  interfering  with  their  sensual  pleas- 
ures and  their  worldly  gains. 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  401 

These  Sadducees  presumed  to  ridicule  or  refute  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  by  presenting  a  real  or 
imaginary  case  where,  according  to  the  law  of  Moses, 
seven  brothers  had  in  succession  become  the  husbands 
of  one  woman.  Having  told  how  each  one,  on  the  death 
of  his  brother,  had  married  this  woman  and  died,  they 
say,  "Whose  wife  shall  she  be  in  the  resurrection?"  Our 
Lord  answered  their  question  by  saying,  "Ye  do  err,  not 
knowing  the  Scriptures  nor  the  power  of  God.  For  in 
the  resurrection  they  neither  marry  nor  are  given  in 
marriage,  but  are  as  the  angels  of  God  in  heaven." 

In  this  answer  to  a  curious,  quibbling  question,  Jesus 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  life  of  his  redeemed  people 
as  they  dwell  in  the  Father's  house  in  the  eternal  years. 
The  Pharisees  had  answered  this  question  by  saying  that 
the  woman  should  be  the  wife  of  her  first  husband,  but 
Jesus  said,  "In  the  resurrection  they  neither  marry  nor 
are  given  in  marriage."  Then  he  added,  "Have  ye  not 
read  in  the  book  of  Moses  in  the  place  concerning  the 
Bush,  how  God  spake  unto  him  saying,  I  am  the  God  of 
Abraham  and  the  God  of  Isaac  and  the  God  of  Jacob? 
He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living,  ye  do 
greatly  err." 

In  this  answer  Jesus  teaches  his  disciples  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  was  definitely 
taught  in  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Pharisees  could  hardly  fail  to  rejoice  in  the 
confusion  and  silencing  of  the  Sadducees,  but  they  did 
not  abandon  their  malicious  purpose  against  Jesus ;  and 
one  of  their  number,  a  lawyer  and  a  scribe,  in  order  to 
tempt  or  test  him,  said,  "Master,  which  is  the  great 
commandment  of  the  law?"  The  answer  of  Jesus  to 
the  question  of  the  young  Pharisees  and  Herodians  had 
disposed  of  the  questions  concerning  the  civil  rights  and 


402  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

duties  of  God's  people;  his  answer  to  the  Sadducees  had 
silenced  their  objections  to  the  doctrine  of  the  resur- 
rection, and  had  revealed  some  of  heaven's  secrets,  but 
now  a  different  field  for  discussion  is  opened  up  by  this 
mooted  question  concerning  the  relative  importance  of 
the  different  precepts  of  God's  law. 

This  question  had  been  discussed  at  great  length  by 
learned  rabbis,  but  Jesus  answered  it  in  such  a  way  as 
to  show  the  foolishness  of  these  rabbinical,  and  the 
later  Jesuitical,  discussions,  when  he  said,  "Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  great  and 
first  commandment.  And  a  second  like  unto  it  is,  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  When  the  lawyer 
heard  the  answer,  he  replied,  "Of  a  truth.  Master,  thou 
hast  well  said."  He  could  not  withhold  his  approval. 
This  summing  up  of  the  law  of  God  was  not  new  to 
him,  for,  as  a  student  of  the  law,  he  only  needed  to  com- 
bine Deuteronomy,  lo:  12,  with  Leviticus,  19:  18,  to  give 
this  as  the  whole  law  of  God ;  and  a  lawyer  on  a  former 
occasion  had  given  to  Christ  a  similar  summary  of  the 
law.  Nevertheless,  it  was  new  to  him  as  an  answer  to 
the  question  he  had  asked,  and  it  gave  the  final  answer  to 
that  question.  Forgetting  the  motive  that  had  prompted 
the  question,  satisfied  with  the  sincerity  and  fullness  of 
the  answer,  the  lawyer  expressed  his  approval,  and  Jesus 
knowing  his  thoughts,  as  well  as  hearing  his  words,  re- 
plied, "Thou  art  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God." 

In  order  to  estimate  the  wisdom  manifested  in  Christ's 
answer  to  these  questions,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in 
mind  that  all  these  discussions  did  not  require  more  than 
a  few  hours  of  a  busy  and  exciting  day.  Had  the  su- 
preme courts  of  church  and  state  been  asked  to  formulate 
answers  to  these  questions,  or  other  questions  of  equal 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  403 

scope  and  importance,  weeks  and  months  would  hav-e 
been  consumed  in  deliberating;  but  these  definite,  com- 
prehensive and  conclusive  answers  were  given  without 
hesitation.  When  Nicodemus  saw  the  works  of  Christ, 
he  said,  "Thou  art  a  teacher  come  from  God;"  but  the 
wisdom  of  Jesus,  as  well  as  his  power,  proclaims  his 
divine  origin  and  authority. 

After  this  no  one  ventured  to  ask  Jesus  any  questions, 
but  he  asks  the  Pharisees  a  question,  saying,  "What  think 
ye  of  the  Christ?  Whose  son  is  he?"  This  was  not 
equivalent  to  asking  what  the  Pharisees  thought  of  Jesus, 
for  the  Pharisees  did  not  recognize  him  as  the  Christ. 
This  question  concerned  the  Christ  or  Messiah  of  proph- 
ecy for  whom  they  were  looking  and  the  Pharisees  so 
understood  it.  Nevertheless,  they  recognized  an  indirect 
reference  to  Jesus  who  claimed  to  be  the  Christ,  and 
they  tried  to  answer  in  such  a  way  as  to  not  admit  his 
claim,  when  they  said,  "the  son  of  David."  Jesus  claimed 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  as  well  as  the  Son  of  David,  and 
the  answer  of  the  Pharisees  meant  that  they  were  not 
looking  for  a  divine  Christ.  But  Jesus,  from  their  own 
scriptures,  showed  the  insufficiency  of  their  answer,  as 
he  said,  "How  then  doth  David  in  the  Spirit  call  him 
Lord,  saying, 

The  lord  said  unto  my  Lord, 
Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand, 
Till  I  put  thine  en-emies  under  thy  feet? 

If  David  then  call  him  Lord,  how  is  he  his  Son?" 

To  this  question  the  Pharisees  could  give  no  answer, 
and  their  confusion  was  so  complete  and  so  evident  that 
they  were  silenced,  and  the  common  people  heard  Jesus 
gladly.  Jesus  had  answered  all  their  questions  finally 
and  for  all  time,  but  his  question  assumed  a-  broader 


404  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

scope  and  has  become  the  question  of  all  the  ages.  Its 
answer  determines  the  destiny  of  him  who  answers  it. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  note  the  incidental  recognition 
of  the  inspiration  of  the  Psalms  of  David  in  our  Lord's 
question,  "How  then  doth  David  in  the  Spirit  call  him 
Lord?"  David,  like  other  Old  Testament  prophets,  may 
not  have  comprehended  the  full  import  of  his  own  words, 
when,  by  the  Spirit,  he  wrote,  "Jehovah  said  unto  Ado- 
nai,  sit  thou  on  my  right  hand ;"  but  the  Spirit  of  God 
spake  through  him  in  words  of  divine  wisdom.  He  was 
one  of  those  who  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

When  Jesus  began  his  public  ministry,  the  scribes  and 
the  Pharisees  were  recognized  as  the  teachers  and  re- 
ligious leaders  of  the  Jews.  They  were  the  zealous  de- 
fenders and  conservators  of  all  the  recognized  forms  of 
religion,  not  because  they  loved  and  revered  old  truths, 
but  because  they  had  a  selfish  interest  in  the  existing  re- 
ligious institutions.  By  strict  observance  of  all  the 
minute  forms  of  religion  they  maintained  their  reputa- 
tion for  superior  piety.  When  Jesus  began  to  teach  the 
pworthlessness  of  religious  forms  where  there  was  no 
^spiritual  life,  they  were  astute  enough  to  see  that  he  was 
undermining  and  destroying  their  influence.  They  would 
vhave  arranged  a  compromise  if  it  had  been  possible,  but 
/between  his  spirit  and  theirs  there  was  no  possibility  of 
compromise.  They  were  as  mutually  hostile  as  light  and 
darkness.  One  or  the  other  must  give  way.  Their  whole 
system  was  built  on  vanity,  deceit,  worldly  policy,  selfish- 
ness and  hypocrisy,  while  Christ  was  honest,  open,  gen- 
erous, self-sacrificing.  Whenever  they  came  in  contact, 
opposition  was  developed.  Patiently  and  perseveringly 
Jesus  told  them  the  truth,  exposing  their  ignorance,  ar- 
rogance and  hypocrisy,  and,  as  he  did  so,  their  envy  de- 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  405 

veloped  into  a  deadly  hatred.  But  the  time  has  come  for 
a  complete  and  final  unmasking  of  these  false  leaders, 
and  to  this  Jesus  devotes  the  last  hours  of  this  last  day 
of  his  teaching  in  the  temple. 

We  have  only  a  brief  reference  to  this  last  public  dis- 
course by  Mark  and  Luke,  as  they  tell  us  that  Jesus  pub- 
licly warned  his  disciples  against  the  scribes  with  their 
long  robes,  long  prayers  and  petty  ambitions ;  but  Mat- 
thew gives  us  an  extended  report  of  this  calm,  deliberate 
and  terrible  arraignment.  No  one,  who  has  learned  the 
real  spirit  of  Jesus,  will  find  in  this  arraignment  a  mere 
outburst  of  anger  and  righteous  indignation.  The  lan- 
guage is  intense,  direct  and  terrible ;  but,  when  we  have 
read  the  whole  discourse,  we  cannot  fail  to  find  in  it 
the  intensity  of  sadness  and  distress.  Jesus  saw  clearly 
the  bitter,  murderous,  hatred  of  these  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees; he  knew  of  the  bargain  they  had  already  made 
with  his  betrayer  ;/he  knew  that  before  the  end  of  the 
passovcr  feast  these  men  would  satiate  their  thirst  for 
vengeance  and  see  him  crucified ;  yet,  it  was  not  so 
much  in  anger  as  in  sorrow,  that  he  exclaimed,  "Woe 
unto  you  scribes,  Pharisees,  hypocrites !"  He  saw  the 
doom  they  were  bringing  on  themselves,  and  the  destruc- 
tion they  were  bringing  on  the  city  of  Jerusalem;  he 
had  wept  over  Jerusalem,  and  now,  as  he  describes  the 
selfishness,  sin  and  hypocrisy  that  are  preparing  the  way 
for  these  impending  calamities  and  judgments,  his  words 
are  swords  of  truth,  but  his  tones  are  sobs  of  grief. 

His  description  of  these  religious  leaders  is  most  dis- 
criminating. They  sit  in  Moses'  seat  and  have  authority ; 
they  make  heavy  and  unnecessary  burdens  for  others, 
but  they  do  not  help  to  bear  them;  they  make  broad 
their  phylacteries,  seek  the  places  of  honor  at  feasts  and 
rejoice  in  their  preeminence;  they  do  not  enter  into  the 


4o6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

kingdom  of  God  themselves,  and  they  hinder  others; 
they  make  foolish  distinctions  that  paralyze  the  con- 
science and  destroy  any  real  sense  of  sin;  they  tithe 
mint,  anise  and  cummin,  while  they  neglect  justice,  judg- 
ment and  mercy;  they  make  clean  the  outside,  but  in 
heart  they  are  unjust  and  extortioners;  they  are  guilty 
of  manifold  sins,  but  one  word  describes  them,  and  that 
one  word  is  "hypocrites !"  They  were  hypocrites,  pre- 
tending to  be  what  they  were  not.  They  were  guilty  of 
the  great,  easily  besetting  sin  of  the  professors  of  re- 
ligion in  every  age,  and  this  discourse  is  not  recorded  as 
a  monument  to  the  infamy  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees 
of  that  day ;  running  through  it  all  is  the  warning  to  be- 
ware of  the  leaven  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  which  is 
hypocrisy.  The  compassion  that  runs  through  the  whole 
discourse  finds  fitting  expression  in  the  closing  apostro- 
phe to  Jerusalem,  as  Jesus  exclaims  again,  "O  Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem,  which  killeth  the  prophets  and  stoneth  them 
that  are  sent  unto  her !  how  often  would  I  have  gathered 
her  children  together,  even  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chick- 
ens under  her  wings,  and  ye  would  not !  behold  your 
house  is  left  unto  you  desolate.  For  I  say  unto  you,  Ye 
shall  not  see  me  henceforth  till  ye  shall  say.  Blessed  is 
he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

The  righteous  indignation  of  the  great  Teacher  was 
tempered  by  his  perfect  knowledge  of  coming  judg- 
ments and  his  being  in  the  conscious  presence  of  God. 
These  intense  words  were  freighted  with  the  tenderness 
and  compassion  of  him  who  prayed,  "Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

This  apostrophe  to  Jerusalem  closes  our  Lord's  pub- 
lic teaching  in  the  temple.  The  last  appeal  has  been 
made ;  the  last  warning  has  been  given  to  the  leaders  of 
a  wicked  generation  and  a  doomed  city.     They  do  not 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  407 

know  the  day  of  their  visitation.  The  door  is  shut.  The 
axe,  which  John  the  Baptist  saw  lying  at  the  root  of  the 
tree,  will  soon  cut  it  down.  Jesus  is  about  to  leave  the 
temple  for  the  last  time,  and  he  seems  reluctant  to  go. 
He  yearns  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  Holy  City  as  David 
yearned  for  Absalom.  He  is  tired  in  body  and  in  mind ; 
for  it  has  been  a  long,  trying,  sad,  distracting  day,  and 
he  sits  down  in  the  court  of  the  women  over  against  the 
Treasury.  In  this  court  are  thirteen  trumpet  shaped 
chests  into  which  the  people  are  casting  their  gifts,  and, 
as  Jesus  sits  there,  overwhelmed  by  the  thought  that  it 
is  for  the  last  time,  he  marks  how  the  rich  and  the  poor 
cast  their  beneficent  contributions  into  the  Lord's  treas- 
ury. Here  is  another  opportunity  for  teaching  his  dis- 
ciples and  his  own  people  in  all  ages  how  God  estimates 
the  gifts  that  are  cast  into  his  treasury.  He  sees  the 
rich  giving  large  gifts  out  of  their  abundance,  but  he 
sees  also  a  poor  widow  giving  two  mites,  the  very  least 
offering  that  could  be  made,  and  he  says  to  his  disciples, 
"This  poor  widow  cast  in  more  than  all  they  which  are 
casting  into  the  treasury ;  for  they  all  did  cast  in  of  their 
abundance ;  but  she  of  her  want  did  cast  in  all  that  she 
had,  even  all  her  living." 

Taking  these  words  in  their  connection,  we  see  Chris- 
tian beneficence  as  God  sees  it.  The  incident  needs  no 
interpretation  and  each  one  can  easily  apply  it.  In  this 
nameless  widow,  with  her  two  mites,  and  these  two 
mites  her  whole  living,  we  see  the  very  personification  of 
humble,  trustful,  self-sacrificing  faith  and  love.  Almost 
ashamed  to  give  because  her  gift  is  so  small,  she  is  in 
God's  sight  a  more  munificent  giver  than  these  haughty, 
self-complacent  rich  men  who  can  hardly  refrain  from 
regarding  her  gift  with  contempt.     God's  estimate  of 


4o8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Christian  giving  is  very  different  from  that  of  many 
a  treasurer  of  a  beneficent  institution. 

As  our  Lord  sat  over  against  the  treasury  and  looked 
for  the  last  time  at  the  courts  of  the  temple,  his  Father's 
house,  he  v^^as  deeply  moved.  Last  things  are  always 
solemn  things.  When  one  feels  that  he  is  looking  on  any 
place  for  the  last  time,  he  can  hardly  suppress  sad 
thoughts.  Jesus  knew  that  this  was  his  last  visit  to  the 
temple,  that  he  was  about  to  die;  that  the  veil  of  that 
temple  would  be  rent  in  twain;  that  soon  the  temple 
would  be  destroyed.  There  was  something  intensely 
pathetic  in  the  way  he  looked  at  everything  as  he  passed 
out;  his  emotions  and  his  looks  were  contagious,  for, 
as  they  went  out  of  the  temple  to  go  over  to  the  Mount 
of  Olives,  the  disciples  began  to  call  his  attention  to 
the  massive  stones  and  the  great  buildings.  They  had 
perceived  his  intense  interest  as  he  looked  at  the  temple, 
and  they  began  to  look;  but  they  did  not  see  what  he 
saw ;  they  only  saw  those  massive  stones,  twenty  cubits 
long  and  ten  cubits  thick.  One  of  them  called  his  atten- 
tion to  the  stones  and  to  the  great  buildings,  but  he  re- 
plied, "Seest  thou  these  great  buildings?  There  shall 
not  be  left  here  one  stone  upon  another  which  shall  not 
be  thrown  down." 

Pondering  the  words  of  Jesus  concerning  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temple,  the  disciples  followed  him  out  across 
the  black  valley  of  the  Kidron  and  up  the  slope  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives  in  the  direction  of  Bethany.  The  pub- 
lic teaching  is  completed,  and  the  hour  approaches  when 
the  Man  of  Sorrows  must  pour  out  his  soul  unto  death, 
bearing  the  sins  of  many.  But  before  he  is  crucified  he 
must  say  many  things  to  his  own  disciples  and  some  of 
them  must  be  said  on  the  evening  of  this  eventful  day; 
therefore,  instead  of  seeking  rest,  he  sits  down  with  his 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  409 

disciples  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  in  full  view  of  the 
temple.  The  disciples  have  been  walking  under  the  dark 
shadow  of  the  coming  events  that  he  has  foretold,  and 
Peter  and  James  and  John  and  Andrew  ask  him  privately 
when  these  things  shall  be  and  what  signs  shall  precede 
them.  They  wished  to  know  what  signs  should  betoken 
the  destruction  of  the  temple,  Jesus's  second  coming,  and 
the  end  of  the  world.  These  three  things  seemed  to  them 
to  be  mutually  related,  if  not  cotemporaneous. 

The  discourses  of  Jesus  during  this  evening  were  a 
reply  to  this  request,  and  it  was  an  evening  that  could 
never  be  forgotten.  The  disciples  were  tired,  troubled, 
anxious,  excited  and  bewildered.  They  did  not  see  the 
events  of  the  next  few  days  as  Jesus  did,  but  coming 
events  were  casting  dark  and  ominous  shadows  on  every- 
thing, and  the  words  of  the  Master  seemed  surcharged 
with  a  meaning  that  the  disciples  could  not  grasp.  No 
one  of  the  evangelists  gives  a  full  report  of  what  Jesus 
said,  and  none  of  them  knew  the  wider  meaning  of  what 
he  himself  wrote.  Of  the  three  evangelists  who  report 
these  discourses,  only  Matthew  heard  them,  for,  while 
John  was  present,  he  does  not  record  the  events  of  this 
evening. 

When  God  reveals  the  future,  he  generally  reveals  it 
in  such  a  way  that  his  people  can  only  grasp  the  full 
meaning  of  the  prophecy  when  they  see  the  prophecy  be- 
coming history.  He  takes  his  people  to  the  high  mountain 
of  prophetic  vision  and  permits  them  to  look  out  over 
things  near  and  remote,  but  they  cannot  always  see  how 
these  near  and  remote  things  are  related  to  each  other; 
therefore,  objects  and  events  that  are  in  reality  very  far 
apart  seem  to  blend  into  one.  We  live  two  thousand 
years  after  our  Lord  delivered  these  prophetic  discourses. 
and,  in  the  light  of  the  prophecies  that  have  become  his- 


410  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

tory,  we  may  be  able  to  understand  the  future  better  than 
the  early  disciples  did ;  but  we  only  know  in  part,  and 
it  would  be  great  presumption  for  any  one  to  do  more 
than  try  to  learn  the  lessons  of  duty  that  lie  on  the  sur- 
face. These  lessons  comprise  warnings  against  being 
led  astray  by  false  Christs,  exhortations  to  be  alert  and 
watching  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  directions  to  ex- 
pect and  endure  sufferings,  and  the  command  to  pray. 

We  should  not  attempt  to  pry  into  the  secrets  that  God 
has  reserved  even  from  the  angels  and  from  the  Son  in 
his  humanity;  but  we  may,  without  irreverence,  try  to 
look  at  these  predicted  events  from  the  view-point  from 
which  Jesus  saw  them ;  we  may,  without  irreverence, 
try  to  think  our  Lord's  thoughts  after  him  as  we  read 
his  words ;  and,  in  order  to  do  this,  we  should  try  to 
see  what  he  evidently  saw  as  he  spake.  He  was  looking 
across  the  little  valley  on  the  wicked  and  doomed  city 
over  which  he  had  wept ;  he  was  looking  on  the  temple 
that  he  had  recognized  as  his  Father's  house  and  the 
type  of  his  own  body ;  he  saw  it  polluted  and  defiled ;  he 
saw  its  divinely  appointed  forms  of  worship  degraded 
and  corrupted  by  sensual,  compassionless,  unbelieving, 
hypocritical  priests ;  he  saw  Moses'  seat  filled  by  selfish 
scribes,  who  made  void  the  law  of  God ;  he  thought  of 
all  that  the  worship  of  the  temple  and  the  tabernacle  had 
symbolized  and  typified  for  fifteen  hundred  years.  He 
saw  also  coming  events;  he  saw,  near  at  hand,  his  own 
sufferings  and  death  on  the  cross ;  he  saw  the  cup  of 
Jerusalem's  iniquity  full  to  overflowing;  and  then  he 
saw  in  the  distance  the  army  of  Titus  besieging  the 
city;  he  heard  the  cry  of  distress  where  more  than  a 
million  perished  by  famine,  fire  and  sword  in  the  siege 
and  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  To  him  these  nearer 
events  were  types  and  shadows  of  the  more  remote  and 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  41 1 

more  grand  and  awful  events  that  will  mark  his  second 
Advent  and  the  end  of  the  world,  when  the  sun  shall  be 
darkened  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light,  when 
the  stars  shall  be  falling  from  heaven,  and  the  powers 
that  are  in  heaven  shall  be  shaken.  This  is  but  the 
merest  hint  of  the  magnificent  but  awful  scenes  on  which 
Jesus  looked  as  he  talked  with  his  disciples  that  evening 
on  the  Mount  of  Olives.  Past,  present  and  future  were 
gathered  into  one  grand  panorama,  for  they  were  very 
near  to  the  crisis  of  this  world. 

As  we  stand  with  the  disciples  by  the  side  of  Jesus  on 
this  Mount  of  prophetic  vision,  we  catch  glimpses  of 
what  was  then  the  near  and  remote  future.  Some  of  the 
things  Jesus  said  were  for  the  special  instruction  of  his 
disciples  in  their  own  generation,  and  some  things  he 
said  were  for  those  who  should  come  afterwards.  When 
he  predicted  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  he  gave  his 
early  disciples  signs  that  enabled  them  to  take  refuge  in 
the  little  Perean  town  beyond  the  Jordan  and  escape 
the  indescribable  horrors  of  the  besieged  city.  But  the 
great  aim  of  this  discourse  seems  to  be  the  preparation 
of  his  people  for  doing  their  work  in  his  kingdom  in  all 
the  ages  until  his  coming  in  glory  at  the  end  of  the 
world,  or  at  the  end  of  the  ages.  As  he  spoke  to  his 
disciples  he  saw  one  day  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thou- 
sand years  as  one  day ;  he  spoke  of  the  duty  of  his  peo- 
ple as  always  present,  and  of  his  own  coming  as  always 
imminent;  yet  he  declared  that  the  time  of  his  coming 
was  the  Father's  great  secret ;  that  he  would  come  when 
men  were  as  unprepared  as  they  were  for  the  flood  in 
the  days  when  Noah  entered  into  the  ark ;  that  his  com- 
ing would  be  accompanied  with  manifestations  of  great 
power  and  heavenly  glory.  He  made  the  uncertainty  as 
to  time  an  argument  for  unceasing  watchfulness,  saying 


412  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

that  if  the  good  man  of  the  house  had  known  when  the 
thief  would  come,  he  would  have  been  on  his  guard,  and 
he  added,  "Therefore,  be  ye  also  ready,  for  in  an  hour 
that  ye  think  not,  the  Son  of  man  cometh."  He  pro- 
nounced a  blessing  on  the  faithful  servant  whom  his 
Lord  should  find  watching;  but,  in  the  strongest  terms, 
proclaimed  judgment  of  condemnation  and  punishment 
on  the  servant  who  made  the  seeming  delay  in  his  Lord's 
coming  an  excuse  for  usurping  authority  and  oppressing 
his  fellow  servants. 

After  this  Jesus  enforced  and  illustrated  his  direct 
teaching  by  the  two  beautiful  and  impressive  parables 
of  the  ten  virgins  and  of  the  talents. 

In  the  parable  of  the  ten  virgins  all  are  waiting  for 
the  coming  of  the  bridegroom,  but  they  are  waiting  in 
different  ways.  All  have  lamps,  but  only  five  have  oil  for 
their  lamps,  and  the  lamps  without  oil  are  worthless.  All 
are  waiting,  but  five  are  waiting  without  making  any  real 
preparation,  while  the  other  five  have  made  the  necessary 
provisions.  When  the  bridegroom  comes  unexpect- 
edly to  all,  the  five  who  have  made  due  preparation  enter 
with  rejoicing  as  guests  at  the  marriage  feast,  while  the 
other  five,  going  in  search  of  oil,  come  too  late,  when  the 
door  is  shut,  and  they  are  excluded. 

The  great  lesson  is  plain.  The  Lord  is  the  Bride- 
groom. The  ten  virgins  are  all  by  profession  his  dis- 
ciples and  are  waiting  for  his  coming,  but  only  five  have 
made  any  real  preparation.  The  profession  of  disciple- 
ship  is  in  itself  of  no  more  value  than  a  lamp  without 
oil.  Preparation  for  the  Lord's  coming  is  to  be  made 
before  he  comes  and  not  at  the  moment  when  he  comes. 
The  true  disciple  watches  for  his  Lord's  coming,  not  by 
seeking  to  know  the  time,  but  by  doing  the  present  duty 
and  being  always  ready.    This  parable  reveals  the  true 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  413 

meaning  of  Christ's  command  to  watch;  it  teaches  that 
his  coming  will  be  the  signal  to  close  the  door  of  op- 
portunity, and  uncertainty  as  to  time  emphasizes  the 
danger  of  delay  in  making  ready. 

The  parable  of  the  ten  virgins  is  found  only  in  the 
gospel  by  Matthew,  and  the  parable  of  the  talents  is  re- 
ported at  length  by  Matthew  only,  though  Mark  refers 
to  it  and  speaks  of  one  or  two  things  that  are  not 
noticed  by  Matthew. 

In  this  parable  a  man  calls  his  servants  and  delivers  to 
them  his  goods,  giving  to  one  five  talents,  to  another  two, 
and  to  another  one,  giving  to  each  one  according  to  his 
ability.  The  man  then  goes  on  a  long  journey,  leaving 
the  servants  to  take  care  of  his  interests.  No  one  is  left 
without  his  work  and  his  responsibility,  and  no  one  is 
assigned  duties  that  he  does  not  have  the  ability  to  per- 
form. To  each  one  is  given  his  work,  and  even  the 
porter  is  commanded  to  watch ;  but  to  each  one  is  as- 
signed goods  and  responsibilities  according  to  his  ability. 
As  soon  as  the  man  is  gone,  the  servant  who  has  re- 
ceived five  talents  begins  to  trade  with  them  and  gains 
five  more ;  and  the  one  who  has  received  the  two  talents 
does  likewise ;  but  he  that  received  only  one  talent,  takes 
no  risks  and  makes  no  effort  to  increase  it;  he  hides  his 
lord's  money  in  the  earth.  After  a  long  time  the  lord  of 
these  servants  comes  and  reckons  with  them,  approving 
and  rewarding  the  first  two  in  the  same  words,  and,  con- 
demning the  third  as  a  wicked  and  slothful  servant,  he 
takes  away  his  talent  and  consigns  him  to  outer  dark- 
ness. 

In  this  parable,  as  in  that  of  the  ten  virgins,  we  may 
see  our  Lord  and  his  professed  disciples.  The  man  who 
distributes  his  goods  represents  our  Lord,  and  the  serv- 
ants represent  his  disciples  in  every  age.    All  the  serv- 


414  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ants  in  the  parable  were  represented  by  the  first  twelve, 
for  they  were  men  of  different  talents  and  one  was  un- 
faithful. It  seems  evident,  though,  that  the  parable  re- 
ferred to  the  future  rather  than  to  the  then  present,  since 
the  Lord  had  not  yet  gone  on  his  journey.  In  this  par- 
able the  professed  disciples  are  not  classed  as  wise  and 
foolish,  but  as  loyal  and  faithful  on  the  one  hand,  or  re- 
bellious and  unfaithful  on  the  other.  The  loyal,  faith- 
ful disciple  is  honestly  and  cheerfully  seeking  to  do  his 
Lord's  work  and  advance  the  interests  of  his  cause ;  the 
rebellious  and  unfaithful  disciple  regards  his  Lord  as  a 
hard  master,  and  is  not  seeking  to  advance  his  interests. 
One  is  waiting  for  his  Lord  by  diligent,  cheerful  serv- 
ice, while  the  other  is  waiting  in  sullen  rebellious  in- 
activity. One  is  making  the  best  possible  use  of  his 
opportunities,  and  he  gives  his  account  with  joy  whether 
his  talents  be  many  or  few ;  another  is  angry  and  re- 
bellious because  his  opportunities  were  not  greater,  and 
his  responsibilities  less,  and  he  makes  his  report  an  ac- 
cusation against  his  Lord. 

The  lesson  of  the  parable  is  evident.  The  disciple 
watches  for  his  coming  Lord  when  he  faithfully  and 
cheerfully  serves  him  from  day  to  day.  In  the  parable 
of  the  ten  virgins  the  necessity  for  making  due  prepara- 
tion for  our  Lord's  coming  was  emphasized ;  and,  in  this 
parable,  the  importance  of  faithful  performance  of  pres- 
ent duties  is  emphasized.  He  watches  for  his  coming 
Lord  who  does  each  day  what  he  is  able  to  do  for  the 
cause  of  his  Lord,  and  for  the  advancement  of  his  king- 
dom. To  each  one  the  Master  assigns  his  work,  and  to 
the  faithful  servant  the  time  of  his  Lord's  coming  is  not 
important,  for,  when  he  comes,  he  will  be  ready  to  wel- 
come him  and  enter  into  his  joy. 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  415 

Having  in  these  two  parables  shown  how  Christians 
are  to  wait  and  watch  for  their  coming  Lord,  Jesus  closed 
his  discourse  to  his  disciples  by  a  most  impressive  word 
picture  of  what  will  take  place  when  the  Son  of  man 
comes  in  his  glory,  at  the  end  of  the  world.  The  dis- 
ciples have  asked  when  the  Son  of  man  will  come,  and 
when  this  world  or  age  will  come  to  an  end;  our  Lord 
has  told  them  that  the  time  is  one  of  God's  secrets;  he 
has  exhorted  them  to  wait  and  watch  by  faithful,  cheer- 
ful performance  of  present  duties ;  and,  now  he  seeks 
to  show  them  how  things  will  look  when  the  end  does 
come.  No  words  of  explanation  can  add  anything  to 
this  most  impressive  picture  of  what  will  take  place  on 
the  Judgment  Day.  To  this  great  event  all  are  moving 
forward,  and  the  deeds  of  each  succeeding  day  are  help- 
ing to  make  the  weal  or  woe  of  that  day.  To  live  as  the 
disciples  of  Christ  should  live  in  this  world,  to  watch  for 
his  appearing,  is  to  live  with  reference  to  this  great  day, 
for  we  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ. 

Before  leaving  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  entering  upon 
the  season  of  rest  and  quiet  that  was  to  precede  the  last 
great  act  of  the  divine  tragedy,  Jesus  showed  his  disciples 
this  one,  far-off  divine  event  to  which  the  whole  human 
race  is  moving,  as  he  said,  "But  when  the  Son  of  man  shall 
come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the  angels  with  him,  then  shall 
he  sit  on  the  throne  of  his  glory ;  and  before  him  shall 
be  gathered  all  the  nations ;  and  he  shall  separate  them 
one  from  another,  as  a  shepherd  separateth  the  sheep 
from  the  goats ;  and  he  shall  set  the  sheep  on  his  right 
hand  but  the  goats  on  the  left.  Then  shall  the  King 
say  unto  them  on  his  right  hand,  Come  ye  blessed  of 
my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world;    for  I  was  hungry  and  ye 


4i6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

gave  me  meat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink ;  I 
was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in,  naked,  and  ye  clothed 
me ;  I  was  sick,  and  ye  visited  me ;  I  was  in  prison,  and 
ye  came  unto  me.  Then  shall  the  righteous  answer  him, 
saying,  "Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered,  and  fed 
thee?  or  athirst,  and  gave  thee  drink?  And  when  saw 
we  thee  a  stranger,  and  took  thee  in?  or  naked,  and 
clothed  thee?  And  when  saw  we  thee  sick,  or  in  prison, 
and  came  unto  thee?  And  the  King  shall  answer  and 
say  unto  them,  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  inasmuch  as  ye 
did  it  unto  one  of  these  my  brethren,  even  these  least, 
ye  did  it  unto  me. 

"Then  shall  he  say  also  unto  them  on  the  left  hand.  De- 
part from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  the  eternal  fire  which  is 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels ;  for  I  was  an 
hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat ;  I  was  thirsty,  and 
ye  gave  me  no  drink;  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me 
not  in ;  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me  not,  sick  and  in  prison, 
and  ye  visited  me  not.  Then  shall  they  also  answer,  say- 
ing, Lord  when  saw  we  thee  an  hungered,  or  athirst, 
or  a  stranger,  or  naked,  or  sick,  or  in  prison,  and  did  not 
minister  unto  thee?  Then  shall  he  answer  them,  saying, 
I  say  unto  you,  inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of 
these  least,  ye  did  it  not  unto  me.  And  these  shall  go 
away  into  eternal  punishment;  but  the  righteous  into 
life  eternal." 

This  is  the  Lord's  great  picture  of  the  judgment  day. 
He  who  would  live  as  a  true  disciple  must  live  with 
reference  to  this  great  event.  Nevertheless,  when  we 
read  the  reasons  for  the  approval  of  those  on  the  right 
hand,  and  the  condemnation  of  those  on  the  left,  we  find 
that  deeds  of  kindness  to  our  fellowmen,  done  without 
conscious  hope  of  reward,  secure  the  approval,  while 
failure  to  do  these  deeds  of  kindness  to  needy  fellow- 


TUESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK  417 

men  incurs  condemnation.  Had  this  picture  of  the  judg- 
ment been  found  in  the  Epistle  of  James,  it  might  have 
furnished  an  additional  argument  against  its  being  reck- 
oned canonical ;  but  this  is  the  judgment  day  as  Jesus 
reveals  it,  and  it  throws  a  strong  light  on  the  question  as 
to  how  Christ's  disciples  should  watch  and  wait  for  his 
appearing.  Not  only  is  the  servant,  who  makes  the  de- 
lay of  his  Lord's  coming  an  excuse  for  abusing  his  fel- 
low servants,  condemned  and  punished,  but  the  servant, 
who  fails  to  see  and  improve  his  opportunity  to  minister 
to  Christ  by  failing  to  minister  to  his  needy,  suffering 
fellow  men  will  be  condemned.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
who,  in  love,  ministers  to  his  needy  fellow  man  will 
find  that  he  has  been  miriistering  to  Christ,  and  will  be 
rewarded  accordingly. 

This  vision  of  judgment  was  the  sublime  and  impres- 
sive close  of  the  last  great  day  of  our  Lord's  public  min- 
istry. It  lifts  the  believer  above  the  present  and  the 
temporal  and  throws  the  search  light  of  infinite  wisdom 
on  the  realities  of  the  eternal  years.  It  reveals  the  in- 
finite littleness  of  man's  judgment  and  the  infinite  maj- 
esty of  God's  judgment. 


LVIII 
WEDNESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK 

Matthew  26:  1-2.  "And  it  came  to  pass  when  Jesus  had  finished 
all  these  words,  he  said  unto  his  disciples,  Ye  know  that  after 
two  days  the  passover  cometh,  and  the  Son  of  man  is  delivered 
up  to  be  crucified." 

(Matthew  26:  1-6;   Mark  14:  1-2;   Luke  22:1;   John  12:36.) 

AT  the  close  of  his  discourse  to  his  disciples  on  the 
Mount  of  Olives  on  Tuesday  evening,  Jesus  said, 
"Ye  know  that  after  two  days  the  passover  com- 
eth, and  the  Son  of  man  is  delivered  up  to  be  crucified." 
Then  he  disappeared  and  we  have  no  information  of 
where  he  went  or  what  he  did  until  Thursday  afternoon. 
The  general  impression  that  he  spent  the  intervening  time 
at  the  home  of  his  friends  in  Bethany  is  not  consistent 
with  John's  statement,  "He  hid  himself  from  them." 
Had  his  enemies  known  where  to  find  him  apart  from 
the  multitude  he  would  probably  have  been  arrested  be- 
fore Thursday  night.  On  the  other  hand  he  was  not 
hiding  from  them  in  any  such  way  as  to  indicate  that 
he  thought  the  storm  of  rage  might  abate  and  that  he 
might  escape  crucifixion.  He  knew  perfectly  that  his 
hour  was  at  hand  and  wherever  he  was  he  was  girding 
himself  for  the  last  act  in  the  great  tragedy.  Our  de- 
sire to  know  where  and  how  this  intervening  time  was 
spent  would  not  warrant  us  in  seeking  to  discover  secrets 
that  God  has  not  seen  fit  to  reveal.  We  can  only  listen 
to  the  eloquent,  impressive  silence  that  succeeds  his 
words,  "The  Son  of  man  is  delivered  up  to  be  crucified." 

418 


WEDNESDAY  OF  PASSION  WEEK        419 

All  the  information  we  have  concerning  the  move- 
ments of  Christ's  enemies  during  this  time  is  contained 
in  the  statement  that  the  chief  priests  and  the  elders  of 
the  people  assembled  in  the  palace  of  Caiaphas,  and  that 
they  decided  to  take  Jesus  by  subtilty,  and  kill  him,  but, 
not  during  the  feast,  lest  a  tumult  might  arise  amongst 
the  people.  This  statement  indicates  that,  while  Jesus 
was  saying  to  his  disciples,  "Ye  know  that  after  two 
days  the  passover  cometh,  and  the  Son  of  man  is  de- 
livered up  to  be  killed,"  his  enemies  had  decided  to  not 
kill  him  until  after  the  feast,  because  they  feared  the 
people.  We  have  no  information  as  to  why  the  plan  of 
Christ's  enemies  was  changed.  Their  meeting  in  the 
palace  of  the  high  priest  was  probably  on  Tuesday  night, 
after  Jesus  had  rebuked  them  in  the  temple.  At  that 
meeting  the  fear  of  a  tumult  constrained  the  rulers  to 
make  no  move  until  after  the  feast,  though  Judas  had 
already  arranged  with  them  for  the  betrayal  of  his  Mas- 
ter. It  is  possible  that,  after  this  meeting  in  the  palace, 
Judas  suggested  to  them  the  time  and  place  of  betrayal, 
and  they  concluded  to  do  at  night  what  they  had  feared 
might  cause  a  tumult  if  it  were  attempted  when  Jesus 
was  teaching  in  the  temple. 

The  following  seems  a  satisfactory  method  of  harmon- 
izing the  different  accounts  of  the  betrayal.  On  the  eve- 
ning, after  the  Sabbath  spent  in  Bethany,  Judas,  enraged 
by  what  he  termed  the  "waste"  of  precious  ointment  in 
anointing  Jesus  at  the  feast  in  the  house  of  Simon,  the 
leper,  decided  to  betray  his  Master,  and  went  that  night 
to  make  his  first  bargain  with  Christ's  enemies.  The 
thought  was  suggested  by  Satan;  but  the  appeal  was 
only  successful  through  the  covetousness  of  Judas.  No 
direct  action  was  taken  until  Tuesday  evening  when 
Judas     again  sought  his  fellow  conspirators  after  the 


420  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OE  GOD 

meeting  in  the  palace  of  Caiaphas.  He  found  them  mad 
with  rage  because  of  Christ's  open  rebuke,  and  because 
he  had  interfered  with  their  sacrilegious  gains  when  he 
cleansed  the  temple,  but  they  were  afraid  of  the  multi- 
tude until  Judas  suggested  some  such  plan  as  was  after- 
wards carried  out.  After  our  Lord  and  his  disciples 
had  observed  the  feast  of  passover,  and  Judas  knew  he 
would  go  to  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  he  again  sought 
the  leaders  of  the  Jews  and  led  the  soldiers  out  of  the 
city  to  make  the  arrest.  This  order  of  events  harmon- 
izes all  the  different  accounts  without  doing  violence  to 
any  of  them. 

We  cannot  read  the  different  accounts  of  these  events 
without  perceiving  that  the  real  contest  was  between  the 
Prince  of  Peace  and  the  prince  of  this  world.  Satan 
was  using  bad  men,  blinded  by  covetousness,  pride  and 
passion.  He  had  the  definite  and  malignant  purpose  to 
destroy  Jesus.  Jesus  recognized  his  real  enemy,  for  he 
said,  "The  prince  of  this  world  cometh." 

Jesus  knew,  too,  that  his  enemy  was  over-reaching 
himself,  and  that  he  was  about  to  be  cast  out.  He  saw 
the  real  crisis  and  knew  its  meaning,  and  could  pray 
for  his  deluded  human  enemies,  "Father,  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  To  leave  Satan  out, 
and  seek  to  explain  these  events  as  merely  the  plans  of 
bad  men,  is  to  leave  out  a  most  important  part  of  the  in- 
spired records.  While  Jesus  was  preparing  himself  for 
that  great  event  for  which  he  became  incarnate,  the 
prince  of  this  world  was  organizing  his  forces,  and  Judas 
and  the  Jewish  rulers  were  his  wicked  and  deluded  in- 
struments. 


ux 

THE  LAST  PASSOVER 

Luke  22:  15.  "With  desire  I  have  desired  to  eat  this  passover 
with  you  before  I  suffer." 

(Matthew  26:17-35;  Mark  14:12-31;  Luke  22:  7-38;  John 
13:  1-17:26.) 

WHEN  Pharaoh's  power  was  to  be  broken  and 
his  Hebrew  slaves  were  to  go  forth  out  of 
Egypt  as  the  Lord's  freemen,  God  instituted 
the  passover.  It  was  observed  afterwards  as  a  memorial 
of  Israel's  deliverance  from  Egyptian  oppression;  but  it 
was  prophetic  as  well  as  commemorative.  The  slaying 
of  the  lamb,  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood,  and  the  promise 
of  God,  "When  I  see  the  blood,  I  will  pass  over  you,  and 
the  plague  shall  not  be  upon  you,"  pointed  forward  to 
the  death  of  the  true  Paschal  Lamb  and  a  greater  de- 
liverance from  a  worse  than  Egyptian  bondage.  Christ 
is  the  great  center  of  Biblical  revelation,  and  the  whole 
history  of  Israel's  deliverance  and  journey  to  the  prom- 
ised land  can  only  be  understood  and  appreciated  as  it  is 
seen  from  the  view  point  of  Christ's  person  and  work. 
He  was  a  prophet  like  unto  Moses,  the  deliverer  greater 
than  Moses,  who  contended  with  and  broke  the  power 
of  a  greater  and  worse  oppressor  than  Pharaoh.  The 
passover,  instituted  in  Egypt,  was  a  type  and  prophecy 
of  the  death  of  Christ,  the  true  Paschal  Lamb.  It  had 
been  observed  by  the  Jews  with  more  or  less  regularity 
for  about  fifteen  hundred  years ;   it  had  accomplished  its 

421 


422  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

typical  and  prophetic  purposes  and  was  to  be  superseded 
by  the  memorial  of  a  greater  event. 

Whether  Jesus  and  his  disciples  observed  the  pass- 
over  on  the  13th  Nisan,  or  at  the  ordinary  time  of  ob- 
serving it,  is  a  mooted  question.  Farrar  says,  "There 
are  ample  reasons  for  believing"  that  the  passover  ob- 
served by  Christ  and  his  disciples  "was  not  the  ordi- 
nary Jewish  passover."  On  the  other  hand,  the  dif- 
ferent narratives  of  the  evangelists  seem  to  most  stu- 
dents irreconcilable  with  this  theory. 

On  Thursday  the  disciples  asked  Jesus  where  they 
should  prepare  for  observing  the  passover.  It  would 
have  been  possible  for  them  to  observe  it  at  Bethany, 
and  they  may  have  hoped  that  their  Master  would  decide 
to  do  so,  and  thus  escape  the  danger  of  going  into  the 
city.  Jesus  answered  their  inquiries,  however,  in  such 
a  way  as  to  prevent  any  possible  protest  or  plea  on  ac- 
count of  danger.  He  bade  two  of  them  go  into  the  city, 
saying,  "There  shall  meet  you  a  man  bearing  a  pitcher 
of  water ;  follow  him,  and  wheresoever  he  shall  enter  in, 
say  to  the  good  man  of  the  house,  the  Master  saith. 
Where  is  my  guest  chamber,  where  I  shall  eat  the  pass- 
over  with  my  disciples?  And  he  will  show  you  a  large 
upper  room  furnished  and  ready ;  there  make  ready  for 
us."  The  two  disciples  did  as  they  were  commanded 
and  they  found  everything  just  as  Jesus  had  said. 

For  reasons  that  we  need  not  stop  to  enumerate,  it 
has  been  thought  by  many  that  this  large  upper  room 
was  in  the  home  of  Mark's  father,  and  that  the  young 
man  who  afterwards  escaped  arrest  by  leaving  his  gar- 
ment was  Mark.  It  is  believed,  too,  by  many  that  it 
was  in  this  room  that  the  risen  Lord  first  met  his  dis- 
ciples, and  that  they  were  assembled  here  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  came  at  Pentecost. 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  423 

This  upper  room  was  supplied  with  the  things  neces- 
sary for  observing  the  passover,  and  it  would  only  be 
necessary  for  the  two  disciples  to  go  out  and  purchase 
the  lamb,  have  it  approved  by  the  priests,  slay  it  accord- 
ing to  the  requirements  of  the  Jewish  law,  and  prepare 
it  for  the  paschal  supper.  It  is  probable  also  that  Judas 
may  have  purchased  the  lamb  and  had  it  approved,  so 
that  the  two  disciples  would  only  have  to  slay  it  in  the 
court  of  the  temple,  and  then  bring  it  to  the  upper  room 
and  prepare  it  for  food. 

Of  our  Lord's  last  journey  over  the  Mount  of  Olives 
into  the  city  nothing  is  known,  but,  when  the  time  had 
arrived  for  observing  the  passover,  he  and  the  twelve 
were  assembled  in  that  large  upper  room,  and  "he  sat 
down  and  the  apostles  with  him." 

While  four  evangelists  give  brief  accounts  of  this  im- 
portant and  most  impressive  event,  no  one  gives  a  com- 
plete account  of  all  that  occurred.  It  is  probable  that 
the  first  thing  that  occurred  after  taking  their  positions 
at  the  table  was  the  declaration  of  Jesus,  recorded  by 
Luke,  "With  desire  I  have  desired  to  eat  this  passover 
with  you  before  I  suffer."  John  refers  to  the  same 
event  when  he  says,  "Jesus,  knowing  that  his  hour  was 
come  that  he  should  depart  out  of  this  world,  having 
loved  his  own  which  were  in  the  world,  he  loved  them 
unto  the  end."  These  two  statements  indicate  the 
thoughts  that  pervaded  the  mind  of  the  Master  and  of 
his  disciples  during  the  hours  that  had  passed  since  he 
had  talked  with  them  on  the  Mount  of  Olives.  He  was 
looking  forward  to  his  own  sufferings  and  death.  His 
love  for  his  disciples  assumed  a  greater  solicitude  and 
new  tenderness  as  he  thought  of  leaving  them.  He  was 
perfectly  human  as  well  as  divine,  and  he  looked  at  them 
as  a  good  man,  about  to  die,  looks  into  the  faces  of  those 


424  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

whom  he  dearly  loves.  "Having  loved  his  own,  he  loved 
them  to  the  end." 

There  was  something  in  the  intense  and  ominous 
mental  and  moral  atmosphere  of  that  memorable  eve- 
ning that  developed  the  worst  traits  of  the  disciples. 
They  were  suspicious  and  ready  to  be  envious  of  each 
other.  They  recognized  a  great  crisis  in  their  affairs. 
They  were  nervous,  excited,  irritable  and  depressed  by 
the  oft  repeated  assurance  that  their  Master  would  be 
taken  from  them  and  put  to  death.  Instead  of  seeking 
to  support  and  sustain  him  by  their  sympathy,  they  were 
thinking  about  themselves  and  preparing  to  fight  for  a 
share  of  the  inheritance.  The  prince  of  this  world  was 
there  and  was  putting  his  thoughts  into  other  hearts 
than  that  of  Judas.  He  was  not  only  making  his  plans 
for  sifting  Peter,  and  using  him  as  an  instrument  to 
break  the  heart  of  his  Master ;  he  was  tempting  the  other 
disciples  and  filling  their  hearts  with  the  most  unworthy 
and  unbecoming  thoughts.  While  the  Master  was  look- 
ing upon  them  with  intense  love  and  desiring  to  eat  this 
passover  with  them  before  he  suffered,  they  were  con- 
tending who  should  be  the  greatest. 

The  contention  of  the  disciples  probably  manifested 
itself  in  their  contest  for  the  place  of  honor  at  the  table 
and  in  their  evident  unwillingness  to  perform  any  serv- 
ice for  each  other  that  might  seem  to  be  a  recognition  of 
the  superiority  of  the  other.  With  wondrous,  conde- 
scending patience  Jesus  gave  them  a  most  striking  and 
never  to  be  forgotten  object  lesson.  Rising  from  the 
table  he  girded  himself  with  a  towel  and  proceeded  to 
wash  their  feet. 

This  was  recognized  by  all  as  the  work  of  a  servant, 
and  the  impression  made  on  the  disciples  is  indicated  by 
the  minuteness  with  which  John  records  it.    He  marks 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  425 

every  act  and  the  thoughts  lying  back  of  the  act,  as  he 
writes,  "Jesus,  knowing  that  the  Father  had  given  all 
things  into  his  hands,  and  that  he  came  forth  from  God 
and  goeth  unto  God,  riseth  from  supper,  and  layeth  aside 
his  garments,  and  he  took  a  towel,  and  girded  himself. 
Then  he  poureth  water  into  a  basin,  and  began  to  wash 
the  disciples'  feet,  and  to  wipe  them  with  the  towel 
wherewith  he  was  girded."  It  was  a  deeply  impressive 
scene,  and  contained  a  great  lesson  in  humility,  reveal- 
ing the  true  standard  of  greatness  in  Christ's  kingdom. 
The  disciples  had  been  contending  who  should  be  the 
greatest  and  Jesus  showed  them  how  to  be  greatest.  No 
doubt  every  disciple  felt  humbled  and  ashamed  when 
it  dawned  upon  him  that  his  Lord  was  about  to  perform 
this  menial  service,  and  each  one  felt  what  Peter  ex- 
pressed. 

It  is  probable  that  in  their  positions  at  the  table  the 
Master  came  first  to  Peter.  When  Peter  said,  "Lord  dost 
thou  wash  my  feet?"  Jesus  answered,  "What  I  do  thou 
knowest  not  now,  but  shalt  understand  hereafter."  Peter 
said,  "Thou  shalt  never  wash  my  feet."  Then  Jesus  re- 
plied, "If  I  wash  thee  not  thou  hast  no  part  in  me."  To 
this  Peter  responded,  "Lord,  not  my  feet  only,  but  my 
hands  and  my  head." 

The  conversation  between  Jesus  and  Peter  does  not 
indicate  that  there  is  anything  more  in  this  washing  of 
the  feet  than  in  the  washing  of  hands  as  a  ceremonial. 
It  was  customary  to  have  this  office  performed  by  serv- 
ants. In  this  act  Jesus  gave  a  great  lesson  in  humility 
and  the  dignity  of  real  service. 

If  the  disciples  failed  to  grasp  the  character  of  the 
Master's  action,  they  were  enlightened  by  their  Master 
as  he  said,  on  resuming  his  place  at  the  table,  "If  I  then, 
the  Lord  and  the  Master,  have  washed  your  feet,  ye 


426  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ought  also  to  wash  one  another's  feet.  For  I  have  given 
you  an  example,  that  ye  also  should  do  as  I  have  done 
to  you."  Probably  in  the  same  connection  he  contrasted 
his  Kingdom  and  Lordship  with  world  kingdoms,  say- 
ing,  "The  kings  of  the  gentiles  have  lordship  over  them ; 
and  they  that  have  authority  over  them  are  called  bene- 
factors. But  ye  shall  not  be  so ;  but  he  that  is  the  great- 
er among  you,  let  him  become  as  the  younger;  and  he 
that  is  chief  as  he  that  doth  serve." 

In  immediate  connection  with  his  record  of  Christ's 
washing  the  disciple's  feet,  John  tells  of  his  reference 
to  Judas  as  the  traitor.  All  the  evangelists  mention  this 
incident,  and  their  accounts  supplement  each  other;  but 
John  gives  the  fullest  account  and  introduces  it  by  rec- 
ognizing it  as  the  fulfillment  of  a  prophecy  found  in  the 
41st  Psalm,  saying,  "I  know  whom  I  have  chosen;  but 
that  the  Scripture  may  be  fulfilled,  He  that  eateth  my 
bread  lifted  up  his  heel  against  me."  John  tells  of  the 
profound  and  manifest  sorrow  of  Jesus  as  he  spake  of 
his  betrayer;  Matthew  records  the  horror  and  sorrow 
of  the  disciples,  as  each  one  said,  "Is  it  I  ?"  John  gives 
a  more  detailed  account  of  the  discovery  of  the  traitor 
and  the  motives  that  led  him  to  betray  his  Master. 
Speaking  of  himself  in  his  usual  way,  John  says,  "There 
was  at  the  table  reclining  in  Jesus'  bosom  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples whom  Jesus  loved.  Simon  Peter  therefore  beck- 
oneth  to  him,  and  saith  unto  him.  Tell  us  who  it  is  of 
whom  he  speaketh.  He  leaning  back,  as  he  was,  on 
Jesus'  breast  saith  unto  him,  Lord,  who  is  it?  Jesus 
therefore  answereth,  He  it  is  for  whom  I  shall  dip  the 
sop,  and  give  it  him !  So  when  he  had  dipped  the  sop 
he  taketh  it  and  giveth  it  to  Judas  the  son  of  Simon 
Iscariot.     And  after  the  sop,  then  entered   Satan  into 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  427 

him.  Jesus  therefore  saith  unto  him,  That  thou  doest, 
do  quickly." 

All  this  was  said  and  done  in  such  a  way  that  the 
other  disciples  except  Peter  did  not  comprehend  the 
meaning  of  our  Lord's  words  to  Judas.  Some  of  them 
thought  that  he  was  directing  Judas  to  purchase  the  sup- 
plies for  the  feast.  Our  Lord  and  the  traitor  knew  each 
other.  Judas  knew  that  the  Master  was  looking  down 
into  his  sinful  heart,  and  that  the  dreadful  crime  that 
he  was  cherishing  and  planning  was  not  a  secret.  He 
heard  the  last  warning  as  our  Lord  said,  "Woe  unto  that 
man  through  whom  the  Son  of  man  is  betrayed!  good 
were  it  for  that  man  if  he  had  not  been  born."  He  could 
no  longer  endure  the  presence  of  his  Master.  "Having 
received  the  sop,  he  went  out  straightway;  and  it  was 
night."  How  significant  these  last  words !  It  was  mid- 
night darkness  within  the  sordid,  treacherous  soul  of 
Judas  Iscariot. 

Whether  Judas  went  out  before  the  institution  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  a  matter  of  doubt,  but  we  assume  that 
he  did.  It  hardly  seems  possible  that  he  should  have 
joined  in  the  observance  of  that  touching  and  beautiful 
memorial  that  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  passover,  and 
has  come  down  through  the  centuries  confirming  the 
faith  and  inflaming  the  love  of  Christians  in  all  lands. 
Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke  give  accounts  of  the  institu- 
tion of  this  sacrament,  and  the  apostle  Paul  declares  that 
he  received  it  of  the  Lord.  The  narratives  of  the  three 
evangelists  dififer  in  such  a  way  as  to  indicate  that  they 
were  written  independently,  but  there  is  neither  contra- 
diction nor  irreconcilable  conflict.  The  apostle  Paul 
gathers  into  one  brief  statement  the  essence  of  all  these 
narratives  when  he  says,  "The  Lord  Jesus,  on  the  same 
night  in  which  he  was  betrayed,  took  bread;    and  when 


428  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

he  had  given  thanks,  he  brake  it  and  said,  Take,  eat; 
This  is  my  body  which  is  broken  for  you;  this  do  in 
remembrance  of  me.  After  the  same  manner  also  he 
took  the  cup  when  he  had  supped,  saying,  This  cup  is 
the  New  Testament  in  my  blood ;  this  do  ye,  as  oft  as 
ye  drink  it  in  remembrance  of  me." 

The  bread  and  wine  were  used  in  the  observance  as 
the  symbols  to  represent  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ. 
The  sacrament  was  declared  to  be  a  memorial  of  Christ's 
death,  and  it  was  to  be  observed  by  his  disciples  until 
his  second  coming,  for  Jesus  said  "This  do  in  remem- 
brance of  me,"  and  Paul  said,  "As  often  as  ye  eat  this 
bread  and  drink  this  cup  ye  proclaim  the  Lord's  death 
till  he  come." 

When  one  reads  the  narratives  of  the  four  evangelists 
as  they  tell  what  took  place  that  night,  and  tries  to  har- 
monize them,  it  seems  probable  that  our  Lord's  warning 
to  Peter  was  given  while  they  were  at  the  table,  after  the 
institution  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Judas  had  gone  out 
to  complete  his  crime,  and  Jesus  spake  with  peculiar 
tenderness  to  the  eleven,  saying,  "Now  is  the  Son  of 
Man  glorified  and  God  is  glorified,  in  him;  and  God 
shall  glorify  him  in  himself  and  straitway  he  shall  glorify 
him.  Little  children,  yet  a  little  while  I  am  with  you. 
Ye  shall  seek  me ;  and  as  I  said  unto  the  Jews,  Whither 
I  go,  ye  cannot  come ;  so  say  I  unto  you  now,  A  new  com- 
mandment I  give  unto  you,  that  ye  love  one  another; 
even  as  I  have  loved  you,  that  ye  also  love  one  another. 
By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if 
ye  have  love  one  to  another." 

In  view  of  what  had  already  been  said,  the  disciples 
could  hardly  fail  to  understand  our  Lord's  words  about 
going  away.  They  knew  that  he  referred  to  his  ap- 
proaching death.    Yet  Simon  said,  "Lord,  whither  goest 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  429 

thou?"  and,  when  Jesus  answered,  "Whither  I  go  thou 
canst  not  follow  me  now;  but  thou  shalt  follow  me 
afterwards,"  Peter  replied,  "Why  cannot  I  follow  thee 
now?    I  will  lay  down  my  life  for  thee." 

In  all  this  Peter  was  most  sincere,  as  well  as  self  con- 
fident, but  he  did  not  know  himself  as  well  as  his  Lord 
knew  him.  Jesus  knew,  not  only  what  had  been  written 
about  the  smitten  shepherd  and  the  scattered  sheep;  he 
knew  also  Satan's  purpose  to  sift  this  enthusiastic  but 
fickle  disciple,  and  he  said,  first,  "All  ye  shall  be  ofifended 
in  me  this  night."  Peter  protested  that  he  would  stand 
with  him  even  if  all  others  should  prove  unfaithful,  but 
Jesus  said,  "This  night,  before  the  cock  crow  twice,  thou 
shalt  deny  me  thrice." 

If  to  be  forewarned  is  to  be  forearmed,  Peter  could 
certainly  have  girded  himself  for  the  battle,  and  no  doubt 
he  thought  he  was  doing  so  when  he  declared  with  ve- 
hemence, "If  I  must  die  with  thee,  I  will  not  deny  thee." 
He  did  not  yet  understand  that  he  was  not  contending 
against  flesh  and  blood,  but  against  supernatural  powers. 
He  did  not  know  that  only  his  Master's  prayer  in  his  be- 
half would  save  him  from  an  absolute  wreck  of  faith. 
He  was  destined  to  learn  by  sad  experience  the  great 
lesson  that  would  make  him  able  to  confirm  the  faith  of 
his  brethren. 

In  Jesus'  formal  discourse  and  intercessory  prayer  in 
that  room  the  night  before  his  death  his  divine  compas- 
sion and  human  sympathy  and  afifection  were  fully  re- 
vealed. The  time,  the  place  and  all  the  attendant  cir- 
cumstances were  adapted  to  help  the  eleven  disciples  to 
know  their  Master  more  perfectly  than  they  had  ever 
known  him.  He  had  talked  with  them  many  times,  but 
this  was  the  last  time  during  his  mortal  life.  He  had 
often  prayed  for  them  when  he  was  alone  with  the  Fa- 


430  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ther,  but  now  they  hear  him  pray  for  them,  as  he  com- 
munes with  the  Father  in  their  presence.  It  was  a  night 
that  these  disciples  could  never  forget. 

The  evangelist  John,  aided  and  guided  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  has  put  on  record  the  incidents  and  discourses  in 
that  upper  room  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  should 
afterwards  become  disciples.  These  words  of  the  Mas- 
ter are  needed  in  every  age  and  are  adapted  to  the  wants 
of  every  generation.  If  we  wish  to  read  the  record  of 
these  events  in  such  a  way  as  to  comprehend  and  ap- 
preciate their  full  meaning,  we  must  seek  first  of  all, 
the  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Comforter  that  is  prom- 
ised. We  must,  at  the  same  time,  use  all  the  recorded 
facts,  as  we  try  to  attain  to  a  full  realization  of  the  cir- 
cumstances in  which  the  Master's  words  were  first 
spoken. 

That  guest  chamber  in  Jerusalem  is  for  the  believer 
the  Holy  of  Holies.  In  it  the  Master  had  observed 
the  passover  supper  with  his  disciples.  Their  minds  had 
gone  backward  to  that  night  in  Egypt  when  the  angel 
of  death,  seeing  the  blood  on  lintel  and  door  post,  passed 
over  the  homes  of  God's  people.  The  passover  service 
was  solemn  and  impressive.  More  solemn  and  more  im- 
pressive still  was  the  institution  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  that  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  passover. 
As  the  disciples  observed  the  sacred  ordinance,  they  had 
visible,  tangible  symbols  of  their  Lord's  death.  They 
did  not  know  that  night  all  that  the  symbols  meant,  but 
they  learned  afterwards,  and  all  disciples  now  know  that 
Jesus,  in  that  upper  room,  as  he  gave  the  bread  and  wine 
to  his  disciples,  was  symbolizing  his  own  death  on  the 
cross.  The  words  spoken  in  such  circumstances  and  at 
such  a  time,  cannot  fail  to  touch  the  believer's  heart. 
The   words   themselves,   as   they   are   recorded  by   the 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  431 

Spirit  of  God  for  the  Christian  church,  are  so  tender, 
so  comprehensive,  so  full  of  meaning  that  nothing  can 
be  either  added  or  eliminated. 

In  the  first  part  of  the  discourse  our  Lord  lifts  the 
veil  of  the  future  and  permits  us  to  look  into  the  Father's 
house.  What  other  words  have  ever  sent  such  floods  of 
light  through  clouds  of  sorrow  bringing  comfort  ta 
broken  hearts  as  the  words  of  Jesus,  when  he  said,  "Let 
not  your  hearts  be  troubled  ?"  When  our  dearly  beloved 
friends  are  taken  from  us,  how  we  long  to  speak  to 
them  and  have  them  speak  to  us!  How  we  wish  to  see 
them  and  know  their  joys !  We  cannot  speak  to  them 
directly,  nor  can  we  get  a  message  directly  from  them. 
We  cannot  even  see  them  as  we  saw  them  when  they 
were  with  us  on  this  earth.  Yet,  to  the  eyes  of  faith, 
the  words  of  Jesus  throw  open  the  doors  of  the  Father's 
house,  and  we  do  see  their  happiness  in  the  place  that 
he  has  prepared  for  them.  How  we  long  to  know  the 
mystery  of  death !  to  know  just  what  death  means ! 
Jesus  answers  that  longing,  as  he  says,  "I  will  come 
again  and  will  receive  you  unto  myself  that  where  I  am 
there  ye  may  be  also."  When  our  dear  ones  go  from 
our  side  Jesus  has  fulfilled  this  promise  to  them,  and 
they  are  with  him  beholding  his  glory  and  sharing  his 
joy.  Does  the  lonely  heart  cry  out,  "O  that  the  dear 
one  might  be  with  me !"  "O  that  I  should  not  be  com- 
pelled to  journey  through  life  alone!"  Even  this  desire 
is  granted  if  we  walk  by  faith.  The  dear  ones  are  not 
far  away,  only  in  another  room  in  the  Father's  house. 
We  remain  in  the  room  that  is  fitted  and  adapted  to 
the  wants  of  our  material,  terrestial  bodies ;  the  dear  de- 
parted are  in  the  room  that  is  adapted  to  their  spiritual, 
celestial  bodies.  The  communion  with  them  is  not  di- 
rect and  material,  but,  while  it  is  indirect,  it  is  still  real. 


432  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

They  are  with  Jesus  and  with  the  Father,  but  Jesus  has 
promised  that  the  Father  and  the  Son  will  be  with  us 
in  the  person  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Our  departed  friends 
are  with  the  Father  and  the  Father  is  with  us.  They  are 
not  in  some  far  distant  land,  but  with  us,  because  they 
are  with  Christ,  and  he  is  with  his  disciples.  If  our 
friends  could  see  us  so  as  to  speak  to  us  directly  they 
might  be  anxious  about  our  welfare,  but  they  know  that 
God  is  caring  for  all  his  own  people  in  this  world,  even 
as  he  cares  for  those  whom  he  has  called  to  the  h-eavenly 
home.  Perfect  in  holiness,  they  have  perfect  trust  and 
perfect  joy  in  God.  They  are  with  us  as  we  work  for 
the  Master.  To  all  true  disciples  in  all  ages  as  well  as 
to  the  eleven,  Jesus  says,  "Let  not  your  hearts  be 
troubled.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  I 
go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.  I  will  come  again  and 
receive  you  unto  myself  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may 
be  also." 

While  we  remain  in  this  world  and  do  our  Lord's 
work  our  union  with  him  is  as  perfect  as  the  union  of 
the  living  branch  with  the  living  vine  from  which  it 
draws  its  life.  He  is  the  Way,  the  Truth  and  the  Life, 
and  we  are  in  him.  He  is  the  Vine  and  we  are  the 
branches. 

We  have  not  aimed  at  any  analysis  of  our  Lord's 
words,  but  have  tried  to  aid  our  readers  in  attaining  to  a 
consciousness  of  the  real  atmosphere  and  environment 
of  that  guest  chamber  while  they  read  the  inspired  record 
of  Jesus'  words  the  night  before  his  death,  John  14:  i- 
17;    16. 

"Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled :  believe  in  God,  be- 
lieve also  in  me.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  man- 
sions ;  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you ;  for  I  go 
to  prepare  a  place  for  you.    And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  433 

place  for  you,  I  come  again,  and  will  receive  you  unto 
myself;  that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also.  And 
whither  I  go,  ye  know  the  way.  Thomas  saith  unto 
him.  Lord,  we  know  not  whither  thou  goest ;  how  know 
we  the  way?  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  I  am  the  way,  and 
the  truth,  and  the  life;  no  one  cometh  unto  the  Father, 
but  by  me.  If  ye  had  known  me,  ye  would  have  known 
my  Father  also ;  from  henceforth  ye  know  him,  and 
have  seen  him.  Philip  saith  unto  him.  Lord,  shew  us  the 
Father,  and  it  sufificeth  us.  Jesus  saith  unto  him.  Have  I 
been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  dost  thou  not  know  me, 
Philip  ?  he  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father ;  how 
sayest  thou,  Shew  us  the  Father?  Believest  thou  not 
that  I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me?  the  words 
that  I  say  unto  you  I  speak  not  from  myself;  but  the 
Father  abiding  in  me  doeth  his  works.  Believe  me  that 
I  am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me ;  or  else  be- 
lieve me  for  the  very  works'  sake.  Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  you.  He  that  believeth  on  me,  the  works  that  I  do 
shall  he  do  also;  and  greater  works  than  these  shall  he 
do ;  because  I  go  unto  the  Father.  And  whatsoever  ye 
shall  ask  in  my  name,  that  will  I  do,  that  the  Father  may 
be  glorified  in  the  Son.  H  ye  shall  ask  me  anything  in 
my  name,  that  will  I  do.  If  ye  love  me,  ye  will  keep  my 
commandments.  And  I  will  pray  the  Father  and  he 
shall  give  you  another  Comforter,  that  he  may  be  with 
you  for  ever,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth ;  whom  the  world 
cannot  receive ;  for  it  beholdeth  him  not,  neither  know- 
eth  him ;  ye  know  him ;  for  he  abideth  with  you,  and 
shall  be  in  you.  I  will  not  leave  you  desolate :  I  come 
unto  you.  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  world  beholdeth 
me  no  more ;  but  ye  behold  me ;  because  I  live,  ye  shall 
live  also.  In  that  day  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  my 
Father,  and  ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you.    He  that  hath  my 


434  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

commandments,  and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth 
me :  and  he  that  loveth  me  shall  be  loved  of  my  Father, 
and  I  will  love  him,  and  will  manifest  myself  unto  him. 
Judas  (not  Iscariot)  saith  unto  him,  Lord,  what  is  come 
to  pass  that  thou  wilt  manifest  thyself  unto  us,  and  not 
unto  the  world?  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  If 
a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  word;  and  my  Father 
will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  unto  him,  and  make  our 
abode  with  him.  He  that  loveth  me  not  keepeth  not  my 
words :  and  the  word  which  ye  hear  is  not  mine,  but  the 
Father's  who  sent  me. 

"These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  while  yet  abiding 
with  you.  But  the  Comforter,  even  the  Holy  Spirit, 
whom  the  Father  will  send  in  my  name,  he  shall  teach 
you  all  things,  and  bring  to  your  remembrance  all  that 
I  said  unto  you.  Peace  I  leave  with  you;  my  peace  I 
give  unto  you :  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto 
you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be 
fearful.  Ye  heard  how  I  said  to  you,  I  go  away,  and  I 
come  unto  you.  If  ye  loved  me,  ye  would  have  rejoiced, 
because  I  go  unto  the  Father :  for  the  Father  is  greater 
than  I.  And  now  I  have  told  you  before  it  come  to  pass, 
that,  when  it  is  come  to  pass,  ye  may  believe.  I  will  no 
more  speak  much  with  you,  for  the  prince  of  the  world 
cometh :  and  he  hath  nothing  in  me ;  but  that  the  world 
may  know  that  I  love  the  Father,  and  as  the  Father  gave 
me  commandment,  even  so  I  do.    Arise,  let  us  go  hence. 

"I  am  the  true  vine,  and  my  Father  is  the  husbandman 
Every  branch  in  me  that  beareth  not  fruit,  he  taketh  it 
away;  and  every  branch  that  beareth  fruit,  he  cleanseth 
it,  that  it  may  bear  more  fruit.  Already  ye  are  clean  be- 
cause of  the  word  which  I  have  spoken  unto  you.  Abide 
in  me,  and  I  in  you.  As  the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of 
itself,  except  it  abide  in  the  vine;   so  neither  can  ye  ex- 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  435 

cept  ye  abide  in  me.  I  am  the  vine,  ye  are  the  branches ; 
He  that  abideth  in  me,  and  I  in  him,  the  same  beareth 
much  fruit,  for  apart  from  me  ye  can  do  nothing.  If 
a  man  abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast  forth  as  a  branch,  and 
is  withered;  and  they  gather  them,  and  cast  them  into 
the  fire,  and  they  are  burned.  H  ye  abide  in  me,  and 
my  words  abide  in  you,  ask  whatsoever  ye  will,  and  it 
shall  be  done  unto  you.  Herein  is  my  Father  glorified, 
that  ye  bear  much  fruit ;  and  so  shall  ye  be  my  disciples. 
Even  as  the  Father  hath  loved  me,  I  also  have  loved 
you;  abide  ye  in  my  love.  If  ye  keep  my  command- 
ments, ye  shall  abide  in  my  love ;  even  as  I  have  kept  my 
Father's  commandments,  and  abide  in  his  love.  These 
things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy  may  be  in 
you,  and  that  your  joy  may  be  fulfilled.  This  is  my 
commandment,  that  ye  love  one  another,  even  as  I  have 
loved  you.  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a 
man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends.  Ye  are  my 
friends,  if  ye  do  the  things  which  I  command  you.  No 
longer  do  I  call  you  servants;  for  the  servant  knoweth 
not  what  his  lord  doeth:  but  I  have  called  you  friends; 
for  all  things  that  I  heard  from  my  Father  I  have  made 
known  unto  you.  Ye  did  not  choose  me,  but  I  chose 
you,  and  appointed  you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bear 
fruit,  and  that  your  fruit  should  abide :  that  whatsoever 
ye  shall  ask  of  the  Father  in  my  name,  he  may  give  it 
you.  These  things  I  command  you,  that  ye  may  love 
one  another.  If  the  world  hateth  you,  ye  know  that  it 
hath  hated  me  before  it  hated  you.  If  ye  were  of  the 
world,  the  world  would  love  its  own ;  but  because  we  are 
not  of  the  world,  but  I  chose  you  out  of  the  world, 
therefore  the  world  hateth  you.  Remember  the  word 
that  I  said  unto  you.  A  servant  is  not  greater  than  his 
lord.     If  they  persecuted  me,  they  will  also  persecute 


436  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

you ;  if  they  kept  my  word,  they  will  keep  yours  also. 
But  all  these  things  will  they  do  unto  you  for  my  name's 
sake,  because  they  know  not  him  that  sent  me.  If  I  had 
not  come  and  spoken  unto  them,  they  had  not  had  sin; 
but  now  they  have  no  excuse  for  their  sin.  He  that 
hateth  me  hateth  my  Father  also.  If  I  had  not  done 
among  them  the  works,  which  none  other  did,  they  had 
not  had  sin :  but  now  have  they  both  seen  and  hated 
both  me  and  my  Father.  But  this  cometh  to  pass,  that 
the  word  may  be  fulfilled  that  is  written  in  their  law. 
They  hated  me  without  a  cause.  But  when  the  Com- 
forter is  come,  whom  I  will  send  unto  you  from  the 
Father,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  which  proceedeth  from 
the  Father,  he  shall  bear  witness  of  me :  and  ye  also 
bear  witness,  because  ye  have  been  with  me  from  the  be- 
ginning, 

"These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  ye  should 
not  be  made  to  stumble.  They  shall  put  you  out  of  the 
synagogues :  yea,  the  hour  cometh,  that  whosoever  kill- 
eth  you  shall  think  that  he  offereth  service  unto  God. 
And  these  things  will  they  do,  because  they  have  not 
known  the  Father,  nor  me.  But  these  things  have  I 
spoken  unto  you,  that  when  their  hour  is  come,  ye  may 
remember  them,  how  that  I  told  you.  And  these  things 
I  said  not  unto  you  from  the  beginning,  because  I  was 
with  you.  But  now  I  go  unto  him  that  sent  me;  and 
none  of  you  asketh  me,  Whither  goest  thou?  But  be- 
cause I  have  spoken  these  things  unto  you,  sorrow  hath 
filled  your  heart.  Nevertheless  I  tell  you  the  truth;  It 
is  expedient  for  you  that  I  go  away ;  for  if  I  go  not 
away,  the  Comforter  will  not  come  unto  you;  but  if  I 
go,  I  will  send  him  unto  you.  And  he,  when  he  is  come, 
will  convict  the  world  in  respect  of  sin,  and  of  righteous- 
ness, and  of  judgment:   of  sin,  because  they  believe  not 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  437 

on  me;  of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  the  Father, 
and  ye  behold  me  no  more;  of  judgment,  because  the 
prince  of  this  world  hath  been  judged.  I  have  yet  many 
things  to  say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  hear  them  now. 
Howbeit  when  he,  the  Spirit  of  truth,  is  come,  he  shall 
guide  you  into  all  the  truth,  for  he  shall  not  speak  from 
himself;  but  what  things  soever  he  shall  hear,  these 
shall  he  speak ;  and  he  shall  declare  unto  you  the  things 
that  are  to  come.  He  shall  glorify  me :  for  he  shall  take 
of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you.  All  things  what- 
soever the  Father  hath  are  mine :  therefore  said  I,  that 
he  taketh  of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you.  A  lit- 
tle while,  and  ye  behold  me  no  more ;  and  again  a  little 
while,  and  ye  shall  see  me.  Some  of  his  disciples  there- 
fore said  one  to  another,  What  is  this  that  he  saith  unto 
us,  A  little  while,  and  ye  behold  me  not,  and  again  a 
little  while,  and  ye  shall  see  me:  and,  Because  I  go  to 
the  Father?  They  said  therefore,  What  is  this  that  he 
saith,  A  little  while  ?  We  know  not  what  he  saith.  Jesus 
perceived  that  they  were  desirous  to  ask  him,  and  he 
said  unto  them.  Do  ye  inquire  among  yourselves  concern- 
ing this,  that  I  said,  A  little  while,  and  ye  behold  me  not, 
and  again  a  little  while,  and  ye  shall  see  me?  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  shall  weep  and  lament,  but 
the  world  shall  rejoice:  ye  shall  be  sorrowful,  but  your 
sorrow  shall  be  turned  into  joy.  A  woman  when  she  is 
in  travail  hath  sorrow,  because  her  hour  is  come:  but 
when  she  is  delivered  of  the  child,  she  remembereth  no 
more  the  anguish  for  the  joy  that  a  man  is  born  into 
the  world.  And  ye  therefore  now  have  sorrow :  but 
I  will  see  you  again,  and  your  heart  shall  rejoice,  and 
your  joy  no  one  taketh  away  from  you.  And  in  that 
day  ye  shall  ask  me  nothing.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you,  if  ye  shall  ask  anything  of  the  Father,  he  will  give  it 


438  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

you  in  my  name.  Hitherto  have  ye  asked  nothing  in  my 
name:  ask,  and  ye  shall  receive,  that  your  joy  may  be 
fulfilled. 

"These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you  in  proverbs :  the 
hour  Cometh,  when  I  shall  no  more  speak  unto  you  in 
proverbs,  but  shall  tell  you  plainly  of  the  Father.  In 
that  day  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name :  and  I  say  not  unto 
you,  that  I  will  pray  the  Father  for  you ;  for  the  Father 
himself  loveth  you,  because  ye  have  loved  me,  and  have 
believed  that  I  came  forth  from  the  Father.  I  came  out 
from  the  Father,  and  am  come  into  the  world :  again,  I 
leave  the  world,  and  go  unto  the  Father.  His  disciples 
say,  Lo,  now  speakest  thou  plainly,  and  speakest  no  prov- 
erb. Now  know  we  that  thou  knowest  all  things,  and 
needest  not  that  any  man  should  ask  thee :  by  this  we 
believe  that  thou  comest  forth  from  God.  Jesus  an- 
swered them,  Do  ye  now  believe?  Behold  the  hour 
cometh,  yea,  is  come,  that  ye  shall  be  scattered,  every 
man  to  his  own,  and  shall  leave  me  alone :  and  yet  I  am 
not  alone,  because  the  Father  is  with  me.  These  things 
have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  in  me  ye  may  have  peace. 
In  the  world  ye  have  tribulation :  but  be  of  good  cheer ; 
I  have  overcome  the  world. 

"These  things  spake  Jesus;  and  lifting  up  his  eyes  to 
heaven,  he  said,  Father,  the  hour  is  come ;  glorify  thy 
Son,  that  the  Son  may  glorify  thee:  even  as  thou  gavest 
him  authority  over  all  flesh,  that  whatsoever  thou  hast 
given  him,  to  them  he  should  give  eternal  life.  And  this 
is  life  eternal,  that  they  should  know  thee  the  only  true 
God,  and  him  whom  thou  didst  send,  even  Jesus  Christ. 
I  glorified  thee  on  the  earth,  having  accomplished  the 
work  which  thou  hast  given  me  to  do.  And  now,  O  Fa- 
ther, glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self  with  the  glory 
which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was.     I  mani- 


THE  LAST  PASSOVER  439 

fested  thy  name  unto  the  men  whom  thou  gavest  me  out 
of  the  world :  thine  they  were,  and  thou  gavest  them  to 
me ;  and  they  have  kept  thy  word.  Now  they  know  that 
all  things  whatsoever  thou  hast  given  me  are  from  thee : 
for  the  words  which  thou  gavest  me  I  have  given  unto 
them ;  and  they  received  them,  and  knew  of  a  truth  that 
I  came  forth  from  thee,  and  they  believed  that  thou  didst 
send  me.  I  pray  for  them ;  I  pray  not  for  the  world,  but 
for  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me ;  for  they  are  thine : 
and  all  things  that  are  mine  are  thine,  and  thine  are  mine : 
and  I  am  glorified  in  them.  And  I  am  no  more  in  the 
world,  and  these  are  it  the  world,  and  I  come  to  thee. 
Holy  Father,  keep  them  in  thy  name  which  thou  hast 
given  me,  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are.  While 
I  was  with  them,  I  kept  them  in  thy  name  which  thou 
hast  given  me :  and  I  guarded  them,  and  not  one  of  them 
perished,  but  the  son  of  perdition;  that  the  scripture 
might  be  fulfilled.  But  now  I  come  to  thee;  and  these 
things  I  speak  in  the  world,  that  they  may  have  my  joy 
fulfilled  in  themselves.  I  have  given  them  thy  word; 
and  the  world  hated  them,  because  they  are  not  of  the 
world.  I  pray  not  that  thou  shouldest  take  them  from 
the  world,  but  that  thou  shouldest  keep  them  from  the 
evil  one.  They  are  not  of  the  world,  even  as  I  am  not 
of  the  world.  Sanctify  them  in  the  truth :  thy  word  is 
truth.  As  thou  didst  send  me  into  the  world,  even  so 
sent  I  them  into  the  world.  And  for  their  sakes  I  sanc- 
tify myself,  that  they  themselves  also  may  be  sanctified 
in  truth.  Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them 
also  that  believe  on  me  through  their  word;  that  they 
may  all  be  one;  even  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I 
in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  in  us :  that  the  world  may 
believe  that  thou  didst  send  me.  And  the  glory  which 
thou  hast  given  me  I  have  given  unto  them;   that  they 


440  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

may  be  one,  even  as  we  are  one;  I  in  them,  and  thou 
in  me,  that  they  may  be  perfected  into  one ;  that  the 
world  may  know  that  thou  didst  send  me,  and  lovedst 
them,  even  as  thou  lovedst  me.  Father,  I  desire  that 
they  also  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  be  with  me,  where 
I  am,  that  they  may  behold  my  glory,  which  thou  hast 
given  me;  for  thou  lovedst  me  before  the  foundation  of 
the  world.  O  righteous  Father,  the  world  knew  thee 
not,  but  I  knew  thee;  and  these  knew  that  thou  didst 
send  me;  and  I  made  known  unto  them  thy  name,  and 
will  make  it  known;  that  the  love  wherewith  thou 
lovedst  me  may  be  in  them,  and  I  in  them." 

Had  the  eleven  disciples  known,  as  they  talked  with  the 
Master  and  listened  to  his  great  intercessory  prayer  in 
that  upper  room,  what  would  take  place  the  next  day, 
they  would  have  certainly  felt  that  they  were  in  the  Holy 
of  Holies.  On  the  mount  of  transfiguration  Peter  had 
said  "It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here,"  but  in  that  upper 
room  the  thoughts  of  every  heart  were  too  deep  for 
words.  "Having  loved  his  own  he  loved  them  to  the 
end,"  and  revealed  his  love  by  talking  with  them  and 
praying  for  them. 


LX 
THE  AGONY  IN  THE  GARDEN 

John  i8:i.  "When  Jesus  had  spoken  these  words,  he  went 
forth  with  his  disciples  over  the  brook  Kidron,  where  was  a 
garden  into  the  which  he  entered  himself  with  his  disciples." 

WITH  bowed  head  and  sorrowful  heart,  Jesiis 
led  his  elev-en  disciples  from  the  guest  cham- 
ber in  Jerusalem  out  across  the  Kidron  to 
Gethsemane.  As  we  read  the  inspired  records  of  what 
took  place  that  night,  we  know  what  is  meant  when  it  is 
said  that  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation  should  be  "made 
perfect  through  suffering."  No  disciple  will  ever  be 
called  upon  to  pray  with  greater  intensity  of  desire  and, 
at  the  same  time,  say  in  more  humble  submission,  "thy 
will  be  done."  Who  but  the  perfectly  pure  and  sensitive 
Son  of  man  can  estimate  the  bitterness  of  that  cup  as  it 
was  prepared  by  the  combined  actions  of  Jesus'  friends 
and  his  enemies,  and  as  it  may  be  seen  from  the  human 
side.  To  be  betrayed  by  one  who  had  been  for  three 
years  in  the  circle  of  his  friends  and  followers ;  to  be 
denied  publicly  by  one  who  had  made  the  most  vehement 
protestations  of  friendship;  to  be  forsaken  by  all  those 
who  claimed  to  be  his  nearest  friends,  just  when  he 
seemed  to  most  need  sympathy,  was  it  not  enough  to  break 
that  great,  generous,  loving  heart  ?  Who  has  ever  faced 
such  consummate  and  universal  unfaithfulness  and  in- 
gratitude ?  When  the  friends  we  have  loved  and  trusted 
betray,  repudiate  and  forsake  us  in  our  time  of  need,  we 

441 


442  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

can  always  see  some  act  of  our  own  that  was  inconsistent 
and  unworthy  perfect  fidelity;  but  there  was  no  such 
excuse  for  the  unfaithfulness  of  Christ's  disciples.  He 
had  been  so  pure,  so  true,  so  loving ;  and,  now,  when  the 
powers  of  darkness  have  mustered  all  their  forces  for  his 
destruction,  his  own  disciples  add  the  poison  of  unfaith- 
fulness and  treachery  to  the  bitter  cup.  Is  it  any  wonder 
that  he  should  pray  thrice,  and  in  such  agony,  "Father, 
if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me"?  Was  it  not 
enough  that  his  Jewish  enemies  should  revile,  persecute 
and  abuse  him?  Was  it  not  enough  that  Roman  soldiers 
should  drive  nails  into  his  hands  and  his  feet  and  then 
lift  him  up  to  die  on  the  cross?  Must  he  suffer  also  the 
worst  of  all  wounds,  the  wounds  made  by  ingratitude, 
until  he  should  cry  out, 

"For  it  was  not  an  enemy  that  reproached  me, 
Then  could  I  have  borne  it?" 

Yes,  he  must  drink  this  bitter  cup  in  order  that  being  made 
perfect  through  suffering  he  might  be  able  to  help  others 
who  would  afterwards  be  called  on  to  suffer  in  this  way. 
If  any  Christian  disciple  feels  overwhelmed  by  the  ingrati- 
tude and  unfaithfulness  of  his  friends,  he  needs  to  go  with 
Jesus  into  Gethsemane  and  look  at  the  bitter  cup  from 
which  his  Lord  shrank  with  horror,  and  then  accepted. 
Jesus  saw  in  that  cup  all  the  hatred  and  malice  of  enemies, 
all  the  physical  pain  and  mortal  agony  of  crucifixion,  all 
the  unfaithfulness  and  ingratitude  of  friends.  He  trod 
the  winepress  alone. 

But  there  was  also  in  that  cup  the  awful  darkness  that 
overwhelmed  his  soul  and  constrained  him  to  cry  out  on 
the  cross,  "My  God,  My  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken 
me«?"  This  agony  of  the  Son  of  God  we  cannot  measure. 
The  mystery  of  suffering  as  expiation  of  the  sins  of  an- 


THE  AGONY  IN  THE  GARDEN  443 

other  is  a  divine  mystery;  we  only  know  tliat  he  bore  our 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree;  we  only  know  that  he 
was  made  a  sin-offering  for  us,  and  that  the  forsaking  of 
the  Father  was  the  one  crushing  blow  that  led  him  to 
cry  out  in  agony  on  the  cross.  It  is  possible  that  ordinary 
men  may  have  a  hint  as  to  the  quality  of  this  suffering 
when,  after  they  have  been  deserted  and  persecuted  by 
men,  they  begin  to  feel  that  God  also  has  turned  against 
them. 

When  our  Lord  was  preparing  himself  to  endure  all 
this  agony,  he  felt  the  need  of  human  sympathy.  He 
would  be  alone,  but  would  have  his  friends  near  him, 
and,  when  he  came  to  Gethsemane,  he  said  to  his  disciples, 
"Sit  ye  here,  while  I  go  yonder  and  pray."  He  went 
farther  into  the  garden,  taking  with  him  Peter  and  the  two 
sons  of  Zebedee,  and  began  to  be  "sorrowful  and  sore 
troubled."  Then  saith  he  unto  them,  "My  soul  is  exceed- 
ing sorrowful  even  unto  death,  abide  ye  here  and  watch 
with  me.  And  he  went  forward  a  little  and  fell  on  his  face, 
and  prayed,  saying,  O,  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible,  let 
this  cup  pass  away  from  me ;  nevertheless,  not  as  I  will, 
but  as  thou  wilt." 

After  offering  this  prayer,  Jesus  came  to  the  three  dis- 
ciples and  found  them  sleeping,  and  he  said  to  Peter, 
"What,  could  ye  not  watch  with  me  one  hour?  Watch 
and  pray,  that  ye  enter  not  into  temptation ;  the  spirit  in- 
deed is  willing,  but  the  flesh  is  weak."  Again,  a  second 
time,  he  went  and  prayed  saying,  "My  Father,  if  this 
cannot  pass  away,  except  I  drink  it,  thy  will  be  done," 
and  he  came  again  and  found  them  sleeping,  for  their 
eyes  were  heavy.  And  he  left  them  again  and  went  away 
and  prayed  the  third  time,  using  the  same  words.  As  he 
offered  this  prayer  "his  sweat  became  as  it  were  great 
drops  of  blood." 


444  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

After  praying  the  third  time,  Jesus  came  to  his  disciples 
and  said,  "Sleep  on  now,  and  take  your  rest;  behold  the 
hour  is  at  hand,  and  the  Son  of  man  is  betrayed  unto  the 
hands  of  sinners.  Arise,  let  us  be  going;  behold,  he  is 
at  hand  that  betrayeth  me." 

No  words  of  man  can  add  pathos  to  the  inspired  record 
of  our  Lord's  lonely  agony  when  at  midnight  in  the 
garden  on  Olive's  brow  he  prayed  alone. 

"Go  to  dark  Gethsemane, 

Ye  that  feel  the  tempter's  power; 

Your   Redeemer's   conflict   see; 
Watch  with  him  one  bitter  hour; 

Turn  not  from  his  griefs  away; 

Learn  of  Jesus  Christ  to  pray." 


LXI 

THE  ARREST 

John  l8:  12-13.  "So  the  band  and  the  chief  captain,  and  the 
officers  of  the  Jews,  seized  Jesus  and  bound  him,  and  led  him  to 
Annas  first ;  for  he  was  father-in-law  to  Caiaphas,  who  was  high 
priest  that  year." 

(Matthew  26:47-56;  Mark  14:43-52;  Luke  22:47-53;  John 
18:  2-14.) 

THE  fortress  of  Antonia  was  near  the  temple,  and 
was  garrisoned  with  Roman  soldiers ;  but,  during 
the  feast  of  the  passover,  the  temple  itself  was 
guarded  by  a  cohort  of  from  four  hundred  to  six  hundred 
soldiers.  Christ's  triumphant  entrance  into  Jerusalem  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  the  discussions  in  the  temple, 
and  the  intense  feeling  manifested  by  all  classes,  as  they 
talked  about  the  Galilean  prophet,  would  be  observed  by 
the  Roman  officers  who  were  responsible  for  the  peace  of 
the  city.  The  temple  cohort  would  not  be  less  than  six 
hundred  men,  and  their  commander  would  be  unusually 
vigilant. 

We  have  no  detailed  account  of  the  movements  of  Judas 
after  he  went  out  from  the  guest  chamber  where  Jesus  and 
his  disciples  kept  the  passover ;  but  we  know  that  he  went 
to  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees,  with  whom  he  had  al- 
ready arranged  for  the  betrayal;  and,  together,  they 
planned  and  executed  the  arrest  of  Jesus.  First,  they  se- 
cured a  cohort  of  Roman  soldiers.  The  actual  number 
of  soldiers  Is  not  known,  but  there  is  good  reason  for  be- 
lieving that,  while  the  whole  cohort  would  not  leave  the 

445 


446  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD     " 

temple,  the  detachment  may  have  numbered  two  or  three 
hundred  men.  There  seemed  to  be  danger  of  an  insur- 
rection, and  Judas  would  not  fail  to  impress  his  fellow 
conspirators  with  the  possibility  of  resistance.  Appli- 
cation would  be  made  to  the  captain  of  the  temple  cohort, 
and  it  is  possible  that  he  consulted  Pontius  Pilate,  the 
Roman  governor,  before  the  soldiers  were  sent. 

Whether  it  was  the  original  plan  of  Judas  to  betray  his 
Master  in  the  garden  or  in  the  upper  room  is  uncertain, 
but  there  seems  to  be  good  reason  for  believing  that  the 
first  plan  was  to  make  the  arrest  before  Jesus  left  the 
city.  If  the  young  man  who  fled  leaving  the  linen  cloak 
was  Mark,  as  many  suppose,  and,  if  the  passover  was 
eaten  in  his  father's  house,  it  would  indicate  that  the  co- 
hort of  soldiers  went  first  to  the  place  where  Jesus  had 
observed  the  passover.  So  much  time  had  been  spent  in 
perfecting  the  arrangements  that  Jesus  and  his  disciples 
had  left  the  city,  but  Judas  knew  his  Master's  chosen  re- 
sort in  the  garden  on  Olivet,  and  he  led  the  band  of  sol- 
diers with  officers  from  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees 
out  across  the  Kidron.  It  was  a  large  company,  and  there 
was  no  attempt  at  concealment,  for  they  carried  lanterns 
and  torches. 

Judas  had  given  his  co-conspirators  a  token  by  which 
they  should  know  Jesus ;  and,  as  if  to  add  all  possible  in- 
famy to  his  treachery,  the  token  chosen  was  a  kiss,  saying, 
"Whomsoever  I  shall  kiss,  that  is  he ;  take  him  and  lead 
him  away  safely."  It  is  probable  that  Judas  walked  some 
distance  in  advance  of  the  band  of  soldiers,  so  that  he 
would  not  appear  to  be  with  them  or  leading  them. 

Jesus  had  corne  from  the  place  where  he  had  prayed 
that  this  cup  might  pass  away  from  him.  Only  a  little 
time  before  he  had  sweat  as  it  were  great  drops  of  blood, 
and  his  soul  had  seemed  overwhelmed;  but  he  met  the 


THE  ARREST  447 

traitor  with  more  than  royal  dignity.  He  knew  perfectly 
what  it  all  meant  when  Judas  repeatedly  kissed  him,  but 
he  only  said,  "Friend,  do  that  for  which  thou  art  come," 
and  then  added,  "Judas,  betrayest  thou  the  Son  of  man 
with  a  kiss?"  Then,  leaving  the  traitor  to  his  own 
thoughts,  Jesus  went  forward,  and  spoke  to  the  leaders 
of  the  cohort,  saying,  "Whom  seek  ye?"  They  had  not  ex- 
pected any  such  greeting.  They  had  been  given  a  sign  by 
which  they  would  know  him  if  he  sought  to  escape,  or 
if  his  disciples  should  attempt  to  resist  his  arrest,  but, 
when  the  sign  was  given,  instead  of  rushing  upon  him, 
they  hesitated  until  he  came  forward  and  inquired  their 
errand.  They  were  not  prepared  for  any  such  reception 
and  could  only  reply  that  they  sought  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 
To  this  Jesus  replied  with  quiet  dignity.    "I  am  he." 

In  the  original  the  reply  consisted  of  only  two  short 
words,  "I  am,"  yet  those  two  words,  spoken  by  the  Christ, 
caused  this  large  band  of  Roman  soldiers,  and  these  Jew- 
ish officers  to  retreat  and  fall  to  the  ground.  No  other 
movement  was  made  to  arrest  this  King  of  men  until  he 
said  again  to  them,  "Whom  seek  ye?"  and  they  replied, 
"Jesus  of  Nazareth."  Then,  knowing  that  his  hour  had 
come  when  he  must  drink  the  bitter  cup  that  he  had  ac- 
cepted in  order  to  save  his  people,  he  concealed  the  awe- 
inspiring  power  of  his  divine  personality.  The  omnipo- 
tence in  that  voice  that  could  still  winds  and  waves,  the 
omnipotence  in  that  voice  that  could  heal  disease  and  raise 
the  dead,  the  omnipotence  in  that  voice  that  could  awe 
men  and  demons  was  now  concealed,  and  Jesus  said,  "I 
told  you  that  I  am  he;  if  therefore  ye  seek  me,  let  these 
go  their  way." 

When  the  soldiers  and  the  crowd  regained  their  confi- 
dence and  came  forward  to  make  the  arrest,  Simon  Peter 
drew  his  sword  and  cut  off  the  right  ear  of  a  servant  of 


448  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OE  GOD 

the  high  priest  named  Malchus.  But  the  same  voice, 
that  had  awed  his  enemies,  restrained  his  friends,  as 
Jesus  said  to  Peter,  "Put  up  the  sword  into  the  sheath. 
The  cup  which  the  Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I  not  drink 
it  ?"  "Or  thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  beseech  my  Father 
and  he  shall  even  now  send  me  more  than  twelve  legions 
of  angels?  How  then  should  the  Scriptures  be  fulfilled, 
that  thus  it  must  be?" 

Then  turning  to  Malchus  Jesus  said,  "Suffer  ye  them 
thus  far."    And  he  touched  his  ear  and  healed  him. 

Jesus  had  restrained  all  resistance  to  his  arrest,  and  had 
willingly  surrendered  when  he  could  have  escaped ;  but, 
when  they  seized  him  and  bound  him,  he  resented  the  in- 
dignity, saying,  "Are  ye  come  out,  as  against  a  robber, 
with  swords  and  staves  to  seize  me?  I  was  daily  with  you 
in  the  temple  teaching  and  ye  took  me  not,  but  this  is 
done  that  the  Scriptures  might  be  fulfilled."  "This  is 
your  hour,  and  the  power  of  darkness." 

When  the  disciples  saw  their  Master  seized  and  bound, 
they  were  panic  stricken  and  fled.  One  young  man — not 
one  of  the  eleven,  possibly  Lazarus,  more  probably  Mark, 
clad  only  in  a  linen  cloth,  dared  to  follow  Jesus,  but  when 
an  attempt  was  made  to  seize  him,  he  also  fled,  leaving  the 
linen  cloth,  and  leaving  Jesus  alone  in  the  hands  of  his 
enemies.  If  Jesus  had  trusted  in  men,  he  wouid  have  been 
crushed  by  this  wholesale  desertion.  For  three  years,  by 
precept  and  by  example,  he  had  sought  to  train  these  men 
in  true  manhood,  and  yet  they  exhibited  the  grossest 
cowardice.  Were  these  disciples  hypocrites,  or  were  they 
more  cowardly  than  the  average  man  ?  No.  They  were 
only  men,  and  this  was  the  hour  and  the  power  of  dark- 
ness.   The  prince  of  this  world  was  there. 


LXII 

BEFORE  THE  HIGH  PRIESTS  AND  THE 
SANHEDRIN 

Mark  14 :  53.    "And  they  led  Jesus  away  to  the  high  priest." 
(Matthew  26:57-75;    Mark  14:53-72;    Luke  22:63-71;    John 
18:  12-27.) 

THE  four  evangelists  give  very  brief  sketches  of  our 
Lord's  trial  and  condemnation  by  the  Jewish 
rulers ;  and,  in  order  to  harmonize  these  accounts, 
we  need  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  term  high  priest  was  ap- 
plied, not  only  to  the  actual  incumbent  of  the  office,  but 
to  any  one  who  had  been  high  priest  and  was  still  living. 
Annas,  son  of  Seth,  was  appointed  high  priest  by  the 
legate  Quirinius,  A.  D.  6,  and  was  deposed  by  Valerius 
Gratus  A.  D.  15.  It  is  said  that  each  of  the  five  sons  of 
Annas  also  held  the  office  of  high  priest,  and  Caiaphas, 
the  incumbent  of  the  office  when  our  Lord  was  con- 
demned, was  Annas'  son-in-law.  The  family  of  Annas 
were  Sadducean  aristocrats,  having  immense  wealth  de- 
rived, in  part  at  least,  from  the  "booths  of  the  sons  of 
Annas,"  or  the  traffic  in  the  temple,  which  monopolized  the 
sale  of  all  kinds  of  materials  for  sacrifice.  They  were 
responsible  for  making  God's  house  "a  den  of  robbers." 
They  made  their  religious  professions  a  means  of  acquir- 
ing worldly  wealth,  and  were  as  cold,  hard  and  compas- 
sionless  as  the  Pharisees,  without  having  th'e  religious 
convictions  of  the  Pharisees.  They  were  worldly-wise, 
politic,  unscrupulous,  heartless  rich  men.    With  them  the 

449 


450  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

difference  between  right  and  wrong  was  merely  the  dif- 
ference between  the  expedient  and  the  inexpedient.  The 
question  whether  any  one  should  be  condemned  to  death, 
was  not  a  question  whether  the  man  merited  condem- 
nation, but  was  simply  a  question  of  expediency.  If  it 
would  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  nation  or  of  the  high 
priest's  family,  by  their  ethical  code,  he  ought  to  be  con- 
demned. 

When  Jesus  was  arrested  he  was  brought  directly  to 
Annas.    Edersheim  says,  "We  know  absolutely  nothing 

of  what  passed  in  the  house  of  Annas except  that 

Annas  sent  Jesus  bound  to  Caiaphas."  This  statement 
seerris  to  conflict  with  the  narrative  in  John  i8:  19-24, 
and  we  feel  compelled  to  believe  that  Annas  asked  Jesus 
of  his  disciples  and  his  teachings  and  that  it  was  in  the 
presence  of  Annas  that  an  officer  struck  Jesus.  It  may  be 
said  that  Annas  had  no  authority,  but  a  man  like  Annas 
did  not  hesitate  to  usurp  authority,  and  his  authority, 
rightful  or  usurped,  is  recognized  in  the  record  that  he 
sent  Jesus  bound  to  Caiaphas.  It  is  possible  that  Annas 
and  Caiaphas  may  have  occupied  the  same  or  adjoining 
palaces,  and  that  both  may  have  been  present  at  the  in- 
formal examination  of  Jesus ;  but  it  seems  most  con- 
sistent with  all  the  narratives  to  infer  that  the  first  ex- 
amination, desribed  by  John,  took  place  in  the  presence  of 
Annas. 

The  high  priest  first  asked  Jesus  of  his  disciples  and  his 
teachings.  This  was  probably  done  in  order  to  get  evi- 
dence that  could  be  used  in  the  more  formal  trial  before 
the  council  or  sanhedrin.  To  these  questions  Jesus  re- 
plied, "I  have  spoken  openly  to  the  world ;  I  ever  taught 
in  the  synagogues,  and  in  the  temple,  where  all  the  Jews 
came  together,  and  in  secret  I  have  done  nothing.  Why 
askest  thou  me?    Ask  them  that  have  heard  me,  what  I 


BEFORE  THE  HIGH  PRIESTS  451 

spake  unto  them ;  behold,  these  know  the  things  which 
I  have  said."  For  this  reasonable,  respectful  answer  one 
of  the  officers,  no  doubt  a  minion  of  the  hight  priest,  struck 
Jesus  with  his  hand.  For  this  indignity  the  high 
priest  was  as  responsible  as  if  he  had  struck  the  blow 
himself.  For  such  an  act  Paul  administered  a  most 
scathing  rebuke  to  another  high  priest,  but  the  meek  and 
lowly  Jesus  only  said,  "If  I  have  spoken  evil,  bear  witness 
of  the  evil ;  but,  if  well,  why  smitest  thou  me?" 

Who  shall  say  how  this  act  was  recorded  in  heaven  for 
final  appeal  to  the  just  Judge  of  all  the  earth  before  whom 
Annas  has  been  summoned?  How  did  the  heavenly 
Father  regard  this  act?  Annas  the  cunning,  conscience- 
less Sadducee,  seventy  years  old,  but  not  venerable,  seized 
his  opportunity  to  insult  and  abuse  the  Galilean  prophet 
who  had  interfered  with  his  sacrilegious  traffic  in  the 
temple. 

Up  to  this  point,  the  Pharisees  had  been  in  the  lead  as 
persecutors  of  Jesus;  but,  now,  the  whole  wicked  busi- 
ness passes  into  the  hands  of  irreligious,  time-serving, 
avaricious  priests,  and,  of  all  these,  Annas  was  probably 
the  oldest  and  wickedest. 

It  was  after  midnight  when  Jesus  was  arrested,  and  the 
informal  examination  by  the  high  priest  took  place  while 
messengers  were  sent  out  to  bring  a  quorum  of  the  san- 
hedrin  or  of  a  section  of  it  for  the  formal  trial.  It  would 
require  considerable  time  to  assemble  and  organize  the 
Jewish  council,  and  it  was  probably  during  that  time  that 
Peter  denied  his  Lord. 

Peter  and  John  had  followed  their  captive  Master,  and, 
having  come  to  the  door  of  the  high  priest's  house,  were 
standing  without,  when  John,  who  knew  the  high  priest, 
went  out  and  brought  Peter  into  the  court.  As  he  came 
in  at  the  door,  or  as  he  was  seated  by  the  fire  that  had 


452  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

been  kindled  in  the  court,  the  maid  who  kept  the  door 
said,  "Art  thou  also  one  of  this  man's  disciples?"  and 
Peter  said,  "I  am  not."  Not  long  afterwards,  on  the 
porch,  another  maid  saw  him  and  said,  "Thou  art  also 
one  of  them,"  but  Peter  denied,  saying,  "I  am  not."  An 
hour  elapsed,  and  Peter  had  returned  to  the  court,  where 
Jesus  could  see  him  and  hear  his  words,  when  he  was 
again  charged  with  being  a  disciple,  and  he  began  to  curse 
and  to  swear,  saying,  "I  know  not  this  man  of  whom  ye 
speak."  Immediately,  while  he  yet  spake,  the  cock  crew, 
and  the  Lord  turned  and  looked  upon  Peter,  and  Peter 
went  out  and  wept  bitterly.  He  had  been  tried  and  had 
fallen.  What  had  seemed  impossible  had  come  to  pass. 
Thrice,  and  with  vehemence,  he  had  denied  his  Lord. 

When  Jesus  was  brought  before  the  council  the  chief 
priests  and  whole  council  sought  false  witnesses  against 
him  in  order  to  put  him  to  death,  but  their  witnesses  did 
not  agree  until  two  were  found  who  testified  that  they  had 
heard  him  say,  "I  will  destroy  this  temple  that  is  made 
with  hands,  and  in  three  days  I  will  build  another  made 
without  hands."  This  was  not  exactly  what  our  Lord 
had  said  about  destroying  the  temple.  He  had  said,  after 
his  first  cleansing  of  the  temple,  "Destroy  this  temple,  and 
in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up"  (John  2:  19),  and  he  had 
spoken  of  the  temple  of  his  body.  But  the  testimony  of 
these  witnesses  made  its  impression,  for  on  the  cross  his 
enemies  cried  in  derision,  "Thou  that  destroyest  the  tem- 
ple and  buildest  it  in  three  days,  save  thyself." 

The  high  priest  knew  that  he  needed  other  evidence  be- 
fore the  council  could  demand  authority  from  the  gover- 
nor to  put  Jesus  to  death  ;  and,  standing  up,  he  sought  for 
evidence  from  Jesus  himself,  saying,  "Answerest  thou 
nothing?  What  is  it  which  these  witness  against  thee?" 
When  Jesus  still  held  his  peace,  the  high  priest  said,  "I 


BEFORE  THE  HIGH  PRIESTS  453 

adjure  thee  by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us  whether 
thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God."  To  this  adjuration 
Jesus  gave  an  answer  that  brought  the  trial  to  a  speedy 
conclusion.  First,  he  said,  "I  am,"  and  then  he  added, 
"Henceforth  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  at  the 
right  hand  of  power,  and  coming  on  the  clouds  of  heaven." 
He  had  listened  in  silence  to  the  testimony  of  false  wit- 
nesses against  himself,  but,  when  the  high  priest  inquires 
whether  he  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  the  silence  is 
broken,  though  he  knows  that  his  answer  will  secure  his 
condemnation.  His  disciple  had  denied  him,  but  he  will 
not  deny  nor  conceal  himself.  In  the  presence  of  the 
council,  facing  death,  Jesus  proclaims  himself  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  living  God,  and  foretells  his  coming  glory. 

The  high  priest  then  played  his  part  as  a  sanctimonious 
hypocrite.  Unlike  the  Pharisees,  he  had  no  horror  of 
blasphemy,  but  when  it  suited  his  purpose,  he  rent  his 
garments,  and,  with  pretense  of  holy  horror,  exclaimed, 
"He  hath  spoken  blasphemy ;  what  further  need  have  we 
of  witnesses  ?"  This  man  had  come  to  the  judgment  seat 
determined  to  condemn  the  prisoner.  He  had  on  a  former 
occasion  used  words  capable  of  expressing  a  deeper  mean- 
ing than  he  had  ever  dreamed  of,  when  he  had  said,  "It  is 
expedient  that  one  man  die  for  the  people,"  and,  now,  for- 
getting his  law  of  expediency,  on  the  charge  of  blasphemy, 
he  would  put  that  one  man  to  death.  Whether  every  man 
in  the  council  regarded  our  Lord's  words  as  blasphemy  we 
are  not  told.  No  one  was  found  who  would  speak  a  word 
in  behalf  of  this  betrayed,  deserted,  denied  prisoner ;  no 
one  would  withstand  the  judgment  of  this  rich,  unscrupu- 
lous, Sadducean  high  priest;  and  so  the  whole  council 
echoed,  "blasphemy !" 

Then  were  the  flood  gates  of  reviling  and  abuse  thrown 
open.    They  spat  in  Jesus'  face  and  buffeted  him;   and, 


454  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

blindfolding  him,  they  smote  him,  saying,  "Prophesy; 
who  is  he  that  struck  thee?"  Condemned  for  blasphemy 
by  this  Jewish  court,  avarice,  envy,  malice,  cruelty,  hatred 
and  every  other  evil  instinct  and  passion  of  degraded  sin- 
cursed  humanity  threw  off  all  restraint  and  joined  their 
forces  to  revile  and  abuse  the  perfect  Son  of  man  and  the 
divine  Son  of  God.  The  powers  of  earth  and  of  hell  had 
combined  against  the  Lord's  anointed.  The  Messiah  had 
come  unto  his  own  people  and  they  had  rejected  him  and 
proclaimed  him  a  blasphemer  because  he  claimed  to  be 
the  Son  of  God.  Sanctimonious  Pharisees,  cold,  calcu- 
lating, heartless  Sadducean  money  lovers,  and  fickle,  ser- 
vile underlings  united  all  their  evil  powers  to  insult,  tor- 
ture and  crush  the  Son  of  man.  Surely  he  hath  borne  our 
griefs,  and  he  was  made  perfect  through  suffering. 


LXIII 
BEFORE  PILATE 

Luke  23 :  I.  "And  the  whole  company  of  them  rose  up,  and 
brought  him  before  Pilate." 

(Matthew  27:1-26;  Mark  15:1-15;  Luke  23:1-21;  John  18: 
28-19:  16.) 

WHEN  Jesus  was  convicted  of  blasphemy  by  the 
Jewish  sanhedrin  he  would  have  been  stoned 
to  death  if  the  Jews  had  been  a  free  people; 
for  death  by  stoning  was  the  penalty  for  blasphemy  by  the 
Mosaic  law  (Lev.  24:  16),  but  Judea  was  a  Roman  prov- 
ince, and  it  was  not  lawful  for  the  Jews  to  put  any  man  to 
death  without  the  sanction  of  the  Roman  governor ;  there- 
fore, early  in  the  morning,  members  of  council,  priests 
and  mob  conducted  Jesus,  his  hands  bound  and  a  cord 
about  his  neck,  from  the  hall  where  the  council  met  to  the 
judgment  hall  of  Pilate. 

Who  is  this  Roman  whose  name  is  forever  to  be  as- 
sociated with  that  of  Jesus  the  Christ?  What  manner  of 
man  is  he  on  whom  has  fallen  the  responsibility  of  passing 
sentence  upon  the  Son  of  man. 

Of  Pilate's  origin  and  family  we  know  very  little.  He 
had  been  appointed  procurator  of  Judea  by  Tiberius  about 
25-26  A.  D.  He  had  witnessed  at  least  three  very  violent 
Jewish  insurrections  at  Jerusalem.  The  first  was  caused 
by  his  soldiers  bringing  their  standards,  bearing  the  image 
of  the  Roman  emperor,  into  the  Holy  City ;  the  second  by 
his  hanging  some  gilt  shields,  inscribed  with  the  names  of 

•  455 


456  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

heathen  deities,  in  his  palace  at  Jerusalem,  and  the  third 
by  his  taking  temple  offerings  to  provide  a  better  water 
supply.  He  despised,  hated  and  feared"  the  people  whom 
he  ruled.  He  had  done  many  things  that  indicated  his 
willingness  to  sacrifice  the  life  of  a  Jew  very  easily.  The 
Jews  had  good  reason  to  believe  that  he  would  not  trouble 
himself  to  investigate  when  he  could  get  rid  of  the  whole 
matter  by  simply  signing  an  order  for  the  execution  of  one 
whom  they  had  tried  and  condemned.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  knew  that  he  neither  trusted  nor  loved  them,  and 
that  they  would  not  gain  anything  by  asking  it  as  a  favour. 
His  contempt  for  the  Jewish  rulers  Avould  throw  his  sym- 
pathy, so  far  as  he  had  any,  with  the  prisoner  rather  than 
with  his  accusers. 

Pilate  dwelt  at  Caesarea,  but,  during  the  feastof  the 
passover,  stayed  in  one  of  his  two  magnificent  palaces  in 
Jerusalem.  Jesus  was  brought  to  the  palace  very  early 
that  Friday  morning.  The  Jewish  hierarchs,  afraid  of 
coming  in  contact  with  leaven  during  the  passover,  would 
not  go  into  the  judgment  hall,  and  it  was  necessary  for 
Pilate  to  come  out  in  order  to  speak  to  them. 

This  was  the  manner  of  man  that  was  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  a  selfish,  sensual  representative 
of  a  world  power  in  which  the  voice  of  conscience  was 
drowned  by  the  loud  assertion  that  might  is  the  only  right 
amongst  men.  Pilate  was  a  godless  man,  and  yet  he  was 
by  far  the  most  fair  minded  man  who  acted  as  judge  in 
any  of  the  trials  of  our  Lord. 

When  he  came  to  the  porch  of  his  magnificent  palace  in 
Jerusalem  that  morning;  when  he  looked  into  the  faces 
of  that  company  of  priests  and  Jewish  rulers  who  were 
professedly  too  pious  to  come  into  the  palace,  and,  yet, 
were  thirsting  for  innocent  blood ;  when  he  looked  into 
the  face  of  Jesus,  the  prisoner  who  had  been  brought  be- 


BEFORE  PILATE  457 

fore  him,  the  latent  instinct  of  justice  was  aroused.  To 
him,  as  a  Roman,  one  Jewish  Hfe  more  or  less  was  a  very- 
small  matter.  If  the  signing  of  this  death  warrant  would 
prevent  an  insurrection  in  which  many  lives  might  be  lost ; 
if  the  signing  of  this  death  warrant  would  allay  excite- 
ment and  save  trouble,  why  should  he  not  give  these 
Jewish  rulers  the  authority  they  ask,  and  let  them  take 
the  responsibility?  Reasoning  in  this  v/ay,  many  a  pro- 
fessed Christian  has  deserted,  when  he  should  have  pro- 
tected the  innocent.  The  act  of  Pilate,  at  this  point,  will 
put  to  shame,  by  placing  in  bad  contrast,  the  act  of  many- 
Christians  who  have  been  reckoned  worthy  a  high  place  in 
the  Christian  church.  Pilate  felt  some  responsibility  for 
the  life  of  the  man  that  had  been  brought  before  him,  and 
he  must  have  some  reason  for  his  act.  He  said,  therefore, 
"What  accusation  bring  ye  against  this  man?" 

This  was  a  most  pertinent  and  reasonable  question ;  yet 
the  Jewish  rulers  did  not  expect  it,  and  they  resented  it  as 
impertinent,  when  they  replied,  "If  he  were  not  an  evil 
doer  we  would  not  have  delivered  him  up  unto  thee." 
Pilate  met  this  surly  answer  to  his  inquiry  when  he  re- 
plied, "Take  him  yourselves,  and  judge  him  according  to 
your  law."  By  their  law  they  could  impose  certain  pen- 
alties without  asking  the  procurator,  and  he  would  have 
no  responsibility  in  the  matter.  Pilate  was  more  than 
willing  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  case  if  he  could  be 
free  from  all  responsibility.  He  probably  knew,  however, 
that  this  would  not  satisfy  the  Jewish  rulers ;  and  was 
not  surprised  when  they  replied,  "It  is  not  lawful  for  us 
to  put  any  man  to  death."  This  revealed  the  real  animus 
and  the  exact  situation.  They  had  brought  Jesus  to  Pilate, 
not  to  get  his  judgment  as  to  whether  he  ought  to  be  put 
to  death,  but  merely  to  get  permission  to  kill  him  accord- 
ing to  forms  of  law.    They  would  throw  on  Pilate  the  re- 


458  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

sponsibility  of  condemning  a  man  to  death  without  even 
knowing  the  accusation  against  him. 

If  there  had  been  any  doubt  in  Pilate's  mind  as  to  the 
innocence  of  the  prisoner  this  was  sufficient  to  remove  it. 
The  men  who  wished  for  legal  authority  to  kill  were  not 
willing  to  even  state  the  crime  with  which  their  victim 
was  charged.  They  were  thirsting  for  the  life  blood  of 
their  Messiah,  and  they  might  have  taken  matters  in  their 
own  hands ;  they  might  have  accomplished  by  mob  vio- 
lence what  they  could  not  do  according  to  the  forms  of 
the  law ;  but  this  could  not  be,  for  the  words  of  Jesus 
must  be  fulfilled ;  he  must  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth  and 
must  die  on  the  cross  and  not  by  stoning. 

It  was  probably  at  this  point,  when  they  seemed  about 
to  fail  in  securing  authority  for  our  Lord's  crucifixion, 
that  they  began  to  bring  their  accusations,  not  in  an  or- 
derly way,  but  as  an  outburst  of  rage  and  malice.  Noth- 
ing is  said  about  blasphemy,  the  real  charge  on  which  they 
had  condemned  him ;  but  they  say,  "We  found  him  per- 
verting our  nation,  forbidding  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar, 
and  saying  that  he  himself  is  Christ  a  King." 

The  first  charge  was  so  general,  and,  unsupported  by 
specifications,  could  only  be  set  down  as  the  reviling  that 
is  born  of  envy,  malice  and  hatred ;  the  second  charge, 
that  he  had  forbidden  the  giving  of  tribute  to  Caesar,  was 
an  unmitigated  falsehood;  and  only  the  third  seemed 
worth  noticing.  Pilate  may  not  have  known  that  the  sec- 
ond charge  was  absolutely  false;  but  he  knew  that  if  he 
would  kill  all  the  Jews  who  had  objected  to  paying  tribute 
to  Caesar,  he  would  have  a  long  list  of  executions.  He, 
therefore,  went  back  into  the  palace  or  praetorium,  and, 
calling  Jesus  unto  him,  said,  "Art  thou  the  King  of  the 
Jews?"  Jesus  replied,  "Sayest  thou  this  of  thyself,  or  did 
others  tell  it  thee  concerning  me  ?" 


BEFORE  PILATE  459 

This  question  of  Jesus  was  evidently  asked  in  order  to 
enable  Pilate  to  understand  the  answer  that  would  be 
given  to  his  question,  "Art  thou  the  King  of  the  Jews?" 
To  a  Roman,  who  knew  nothing  of  the  promised  Messiah, 
this  question  meant  one  thing,  but  to  the  believing  Jew, 
who  was  looking  for  the  coming  Son  of  David,  to  the  in- 
telligent, believing  Jew,  who  was  expecting  the  fulfillment 
of  prophecy,  it  meant  a  very  different  thing.  Hence  the 
question,  "Sayest  thou  this  of  thyself?" 

Pilate  answered  the  question,  and  possibly  with  an  ac- 
cent of  contempt,  as  he  said,  "Am  I  a  Jew?  Thine  own 
nation  and  the  chief  priests  delivered  thee  unto  me.  What 
hast  thou  done?" 

This  was  equivalent  to  saying,  that  he  knew  nothing 
about  Jesus'  claim  to  kingship,  but  that  his  own  nation  had 
accused  him  of  claiming  to  be  a  king,  and  had  suggested 
that  he  was  plotting  against  Caesar's  government.  To 
this  answer  of  Pilate,  Jesus  replied,  "My  kingdom  is  not 
of  this  world ;  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then 
would  my  servants  fight  that  I  should  not  be  delivered 
to  the  Jews ;  but  now  is  my  kingdom  not  from  hence." 

This  answer  convinced  Pilate  that  Jesus  was  not  plot- 
ting against  Caesar ;  but  it  also  created  in  him  at  least  the 
shadow  of  reverential  awe,  and  he  said  to  Jesus,  "Art 
thou  a  king  then  ?" 

Jesus  replied,  "I  am.  To  this  end  have  I  been  born, 
and  to  this  end  came  I  into  the  world  that  I  should  bear 
witness  unto  the  truth.  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth 
heareth  my  voice." 

This  answer  bewildered  and  probably  annoyed  the  sen- 
sual Roman,  and  he  exclaimed,  "What  is  truth?"  Then 
he  went  out  again  to  the  Jews  and  said,  "I  find  no  crime 
in  him."  These  words  of  the  governor  were  met  with  an 
outburst  of  rage  on  the  part  of  the  Jews.     They  had 


46o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

brought  the  prisoner  to  Pilate  for  condemnation  and  he 
proclaimed  him  innocent. 

As  Pilate  listened  he  heard  accusations  against  Jesus 
for  what  he  had  done  in  Galilee  as  well  as  in  Jerusalem, 
and  he  asked  whether  the  man  were  a  Galilean.  The  an- 
swer to  this  question  suggested  another  way  of  settling 
the  matter,  and  escaping  responsibility.  He  would  send 
him  to  Herod,  for  Galilee  was  in  Herod's  jurisdiction, 
and  Herod  was  then  in  Jerusalem. 

At  this  point  we  introduce  Matthew's  account  of  the 
fate  of  Judas  the  traitor  disciple.  This  even  may  have  oc- 
curred immediately  after  our  Lord's  condemnation  by  the 
sanhedrin,  or  it  may  not  have  occurred  until  after  the 
final  condemnation  by  Pilate,  but  it  is,  at  least,  probable 
that  it  took  place  when  Jesus  was  sent  to  Herod.  When 
Judas  saw  that  his  Master  was  condemned,  he  seemed  to 
realize  what  he  had  done,  and  was  overwhelmed  with  re- 
morse. Covetousness  and  hatred  had  nerved  him  to  do 
the  deed,  but  the  excitement  had  spent  its  force,  and  he 
saw  at  least  a  part  of  the  enormity  of  his  sin.  "He  re- 
pented himself,"  but  not  in  such  a  way  as  to  go  and  con- 
fess to  his  betrayed  Lord.  The  thirty  pieces  of  silver 
were  consuming  him,  and  he  went  to  the  elders  and  chief 
priests,  saying,  "I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed 
innocent  blood." 

H  Judas  expected  sympathy  from  his  confederates  in 
crime  he  was  doomed  to  disappointment.  They  had  be- 
come an  angry  mob  and  still  thirsted  for  innocent  blood. 
They  had  encouraged  him  when  he  was  planning  and  ex- 
ecuting the  betrayal,  but  now  they  despised  him,  and  ag- 
gravated his  remorse,  as  they  said  with  harsh,  haughty 
contempt,  "What  is  that  to  us?    see  thou  to  it." 

Words  will  not  adequately  describe  the  agony  of  the 
hopeless,  tempest-tossed  soul  of  the  traitor  as  he  heard 


BEFORE  PILATE  461 

this  retort.  He  flung  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  down  on 
the  pavement  in  the  holy  place,  and  went  out  and  hanged 
himself.  He  found  no  place  for  real  repentance,  and  he 
went  to  his  own  place.  We  have  the  saddest  thought  of 
tongue  or  pen  when  we  contrast  what  Judas  was  with 
what  he  might  have  been.  In  privilege  he  was  exalted  to 
heaven,  yet  it  was  said  of  him,  "Good  were  it  for  that  man 
if  he  had  not  been  born." 

The  money  for  which  Judas  had  sold  his  Lord  came  into 
the  hands  of  the  priests,  and,  straining  out  the  gnat,  while 
swallowing  the  camel,  they  decided  that,  since  it  was  the 
price  of  blood,  it  should  not  go  into  the  Lord's  treasury, 
but  should  be  used  to  purchase  the  potters'  field  for  the 
burial  of  strangers.  In  this  pseudo-pious  transaction  of 
impious  men  the  evangelist  Matthew  sees  the  fulfillment 
of  a  prophecy.     (Zech.  11 :  12.) 

Herod  Antipas,  to  whom  Pilate  sent  Jesus,  was  the 
weak,  sensual,  cunning,  cruel,  cowardly  murderer  of  John 
the  Baptist,  of  whom  Jesus  had  spoken  as  "that  fox." 
Herod  was  exceedingly  glad  to  have  Jesus  sent  unto  him, 
not  only  because  he  may  have  interpreted  Pilate's  act  as 
an  attempt  to  establish  friendly  relations  with  him,  but  be- 
cause he  had  for  a  long  time  desired  to  see  this  miracle- 
worker,  hoping  to  see  some  of  his  miracles.  When  Jesus 
was  before  Pilate  his  attitude  was  that  of  quiet,  respectful 
dignity,  but  when  he  came  before  Herod,  he  refused  to 
recognize  him  in  any  way.  To  all  Herod's  questions  he 
answered  not  a  word.  Nor  would  he  deign  to  give  to  that 
monster  of  iniquity  any  answer  to  the  vehement  charges 
that  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  were  making  against 
him.  Herod  and  his  soldiers  taunted  and  mocked  Jesus, 
arraying  him  in  gorgeous  apparel  and  sending  him  back 
to  Pilate. 


462  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

What  a  spectacle,  not  only  for  angels  and  men,  but  for 
the  just  Judge  of  all  the  earth  !  Civil  government  an  ordi- 
nance of  God,  and  Herod  occupying  the  place  of  a  min- 
ister of  God  for  justice,  with  the  Perfect  Man  a  prisoner 
on  trial  for  his  life !  Nevertheless  the  act  of  Herod  was  a 
practical  acquittal,  for  he  treated  the  accusation  that 
Christ  claimed  to  be  a  king  as  too  ridiculous  to  be  taken 
seriously. 

When  Jesus  was  brought  the  second  time  before  the 
Roman  governor,  Pilate  was  perplexed  and  troubled.  He 
summoned  the  chief  priests,  the  sanhedrists  and  the  peo- 
ple, and  addressed  them  very  earnestly,  saying,  "Ye 
brought  unto  me  this  man  as  one  that  perverteth  the  peo- 
ple; and,  behold,  I,  having  examined  him  before  you, 
find  no  fault  in  this  man  touching  the  things  whereof 
ye  have  accused  him ;  no,  nor  yet  Herod ;  for  he  sent 
him  back  unto  us ;  and  behold  nothing  worthy  of  death 
hath  been  done  by  him." 

This  was  a  clear,  concise,  correct  statement  of  the  case. 
Pilate's  forensic  skill  and  experience  enabled  him  to  see 
clearly  and  state  succinctly  and  convincingly  all  the  es- 
sential facts ;  and  his  own  duty  was  perfectly  plain.  The 
judge  had  proclaimed  the  prisoner  innocent,  and  he  only 
needed  to  add,  that  he  would  protect  the  innocent  with  all 
the  power  that  was  vested  in  him  as  a  civil  ruler.  In- 
stead of  doing  this,  he  proposed  a  compromise,  as  he 
said,  "I  will  therefore  chastise  him  and  release  him." 

Why  say  "therefore"  I  will  chastise  him  ?  Why  chas- 
tise one  that  had  been  declared  innocent?  This  was  the 
fatal  error  of  the  weak  and  wavering  judge.  He  would 
yield  to  popular  clamour  a  part  of  what  was  asked.  The 
logical  inference  was  that,  if  the  clamour  were  loud 
enough,  he  would  yield  everything  that  was  asked.  The 
golden  opportunity  to  vindicate  justice,  by  setting  the  ab- 


BEFORE  PILATE  463 

solutely  innocent  absolutely  free,  was  forever  lost  by  this 
weak  and  wicked  attempt  at  compromise. 

It  was  probably  at  this  time  that  another  thought  came 
into  Pilate's  mind.  It  was  his  custom  at  the  feast  to  par- 
don and  release  to  the  multitude  as  a  paschal  boon  some 
condemned  prisoner.  Pilate  proposed  to  condemn  Jesus, 
and  then  release  him  as  a  paschal  gift  to  the  people.  The 
very  mention  of  this  custom  was  adapted  to  conciliate  the 
Jews,  but  Pilate  was  trying  to  blend  light  with  darkness, 
to  mix  justice  with  injustice,  and  reconcile  the  irrecon- 
cilable. He  was  compelled  to  face  deadly  hatred,  envy 
and  malice,  in  pursuit  of  innocence,  and  no  compromise 
was  possible.  Every  attempt  at  compromise  only  en- 
couraged the  blood  thirsty  conspirators.  The  multitude, 
led  by  priests  and  rulers,  would  have  chosen  any  other 
prisoner  rather  than  Jesus,  the  Christ,  and  they  had  a 
notable  prisoner  named  Barabbas  whom  they  did  choose. 

This  offer  of  Pilate  was  a  wicked  tampering  with  jus- 
tice, for,  if,  as  he  had  declared,  Jesus  was  innocent,  he 
could  not  condemn  him  even  for  the  purpose  of  freeing 
him.  We  cannot  fail  to  pity,  as  well  as  blame,  the  weak 
man  who  was  struggling  unsuccessfully  to  escape  the  re- 
sponsibility of  his  position.  Never,  probably,  in  all  his 
life,  had  he  felt  such  a  sense  of  responsibility  as  oppressed 
him  in  dealing  with  this  prisoner.  Again  he  appealed  to 
the  multitude  saying  "whether  of  the  twain  will  ye  that  I 
release  unto  you?"  And,  when  they  answered,  "Barab- 
bas," he  could  only  say,  as  if  bewildered  and  helpless, 
"What  then  shall  I  do  unto  Jesus  who  is  called  Christ?" 
"What  shall  I  do  to  him  whom  ye  call  the  King  of  the 
Jews?"  To  this  question  the  mob,  with  one  voice,  cried 
"Crucify  him."  When  Pilate  appealed  saying,  "Why, 
what  evil  hath  he  done  ?"  his  voice  was  drowned  with  the 
cry,  "Crucify  him." 


464  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Up  to  this  time  Pilate  seemed  to  stand  alone  in  his 
defense  of  Jesus.  Of  all  the  blind  whose  eyes  Jesus  had 
opened,  of  all  the  deaf  whose  ears  he  had  unstopped,  of 
all  the  lepers  he  had  cleansed,  of  all  the  broken  hearted 
and  bereaved  that  he  had  comforted,  not  one  had  come 
forward  to  speak  a  word  in  his  behalf.  But  from  an  un- 
expected source  the  governor  received  a  strange  message, 
even  as  he  was  sitting  on  the  judgment  seat.  The  message 
was  from  Claudia  Procula,  his  wife,  saying,  "Have  thou 
nothing  to  do  with  that  righteous  man;  for  I  have  suf- 
fered many  things  this  day  in  a  dream  because  of  him." 
On  a  Roman,  like  Pilate,  who  remembered  the  death  of 
Julius  Caesar  and  the  dream  of  Caesar's  wife,  these  words 
must  have  made  a  profound  impression.  Nor  can  we  fail 
to  be  deeply  impressed  when  we  remember  that  the  only 
words  spoken  in  defense  of  our  Lord  when  he  was  on 
trial  were  spoken  by  a  pagan  woman. 

Pilate  would  very  gladly  have  heeded  the  entreaty  of 
his  wife,  for  he  had  been  struggling  to  escape  all  respon- 
sibility for  doing  anything  with  Jesus,  but  he  had  been 
tampering  with  justice,  and  was  afraid  to  do  right.  He 
had  been  looking  at  the  whole  matter  from  the  standpoint 
of  self,  and  he  dreaded  an  insurrection  that  might  result 
in  his  own  removal  from  office.  He  knew  that  Jesus  was 
innocent,  and  that  he  had  been  delivered  up  by  wicked, 
envious  enemies,  but  he  was  a  coward,  and  would  betray 
the  innocent  and  sacrifice  justice  rather  than  endanger  his 
own  selfish  interests. 

The  exact  order  of  events  at  this  point  is  uncertain ; 
but,  inasmuch  as  John  was  an  eye  witness,  and  gives  the 
most  detailed  account,  we  follow  his  narrative.  The  mes- 
sage from  Pilate's  wife,  reported  only  by  Matthew,  would 
cause  some  delay  and  stimulate  Pilate  to  devise 
some  other  method  of  escaping  responsibility  for  sen- 


BEFORE  PILATE  465 

tencing  Jesus,  but  he  still  moved  forward  to  the  consum- 
mation of  his  great  judicial  crime,  and  he  ordered  Jesus 
to  be  scourged.  This  was  a  preparation  for  the  cruci- 
fixion ;  but  Pilate  may  have  thought  that  the  terrible  suf- 
ferings from  this  scourging  would  satisfy  the  multitude 
and  that  the  crucifixion  might  not  be  necessary. 

The  scourging  probably  took  place  in  the  presence  of  the 
multitude ;  and,  when  it  was  ended,  Jesus  was  led  back 
into  the  praetorium,  where  he  was  crowned  with  thorns 
and  arrayed  in  a  purple  robe — probably  the  gorgeous  pur- 
ple in  which  Herod  and  his  enemies  had  clothed  him — 
and  insulted  by  contemptuous  cries  of,  "Hail,  King  of  the 
Jews !"  Pilate  then  took  the  bleeding,  suffering  Jesus  out 
to  the  multitude,  and  appealed  to  their  sense  of  justice 
and  their  pity  saying,  "Behold,  I  bring  him  out  to  you, 
that  ye  may  know  that  I  find  no  crime  in  him."  Then,  as 
the  multitude  looked  on  their  king  crowned  with  thorns, 
Pilate  said  "Ecce  homo !" 

It  was  such  a  sight  as  might  have  stirred  pity  in  hearts 
of  stone ;  but  these  were  blood  thirsty  wolves,  and  this 
sight  only  added  to  their  thirst  for  innocent  blood.  In 
that  multitude  were  the  respectable  citizens  of  Jerusalem, 
the  religious  leaders  of  that  day ;  in  that  multitude  were 
many  who  had  within  a  week  shouted  "hosanna,"  as  Jesus 
entered  Jerusalem. 

What  is  the  psychological  explanation?  What  has  de- 
monized  respectable  men  and  women  and  made  them  more 
blood  thirsty  than  wild  beasts?  Whence  this  cruel,  ma- 
licious, murderous  demand  for  the  crucifixion  of  the  kind 
and  gentle  Saviour  of  lost  men? 

No  adequate  explanation  can  be  found  that  ignores  our 
Lord's  declaration,  "the  prince  of  this  world  cometh  and 
hath  nothing  in  me,"  or  as  he  declared  again,  "This  is 
your  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness."    It  was  all  the 


466  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

result  of  poor  human  nature  being  controlled  by  the 
powers  of  darkness.  Alas,  for  the  man  who  trusts  in 
man  when  calamities  come  and  the  winds  and  waves  of 
adversity  overwhelm  him !  Jesus  was  down,  he  was  the 
victim  of  popular  condemnation  and  the  multitude  took 
savage  delight  in  helping  to  crush  him. 

The  men  who  led  the  multitude  in  this  horrid  outrage 
against  the  perfect  Son  of  man  were  chief  priests  and  of- 
ficers, the  religious  teachers  and  prominent  men  of  the 
Jewish  nation.  They  had  been  hardened  by  handling  the 
husks  of  holy  things  until  they  were  even  more  cruel  and 
compassionless  than  men  who  made  no  pretensions  to  be 
religious.  This  is  true  of  men  in  every  generation.  The 
most  heartless,  most  cruel,  most  diabolical  crimes  have 
been  committed  by  men  who  have  the  forms,  but  have  not 
felt  the  power  of  godliness.  When  avarice  and  covetous- 
ness  don  the  cloak  of  piety  we  may  expect  abnormal 
crimes. 

When  Pilate  saw  the  utter  lack  of  pity,  and  heard  again 
the  cry  for  blood,  he  loathed  the  whole  miserable  busi- 
ness, and  exclaimed  impatiently,  "Take  him  yourselves 
and  crucify  him ;  for  I  find  no  crime  in  him."  Then,  for 
the  first  time  in  Pilate's  presence,  they  brought  forth  the 
real  charge  on  w^hich  the  sanhedrin  had  condemned  Jesus, 
as  they  said,  "We  have  a  law,  and  by  that  law  he  ought  to 
die  because  he  made  himself  the  Son  of  God." 

When  Pilate  heard  this,  he  was  the  more  afraid.  It 
aroused  his  superstition  or  his  reverential  awe,  and,  going 
again  into  the  palace  to  talk  with  the  innocent  prisoner 
whom  he  had  scourged,  he  said  to  Jesus,  "Whence  art 
thou?"  Jesus  gave  him  no  answer.  Pilate  then  said, 
"Speakest  thou  not  unto  me?  Knowest  thou  not  that  I 
have  power  to  release  thee,  and  have  power  to  condemn 
thee?" 


BEFORE  PILATE  467 

There  were  elements  of  tenderness  and  reverence  in 
Pilate's  voice  as  he  said  this,  and  Jesus  answered  him 
with  divine  dignity,  saying,  "Thou  wouldst  have  no  power 
against  me,  except  it  were  given  thee  from  above ;  there- 
fore he  that  delivered  me  unto  thee  hath  greater  sin." 

How  little  Pilate  and  the  angry  multitude  outside  his 
great  judgment  hall  seem  when  we  hear  these  sublime 
words  of  Jesus !  They  impressed  Pilate  profoundly  and 
he  again  sought  to  release  Jesus,  but  the  Jews  took  up 
another  cry,  saying,  "If  thou  release  this  man,  thou  art 
not  Caesar's  friend;  every  one  that  maketh  himself  a  king 
speaketh  against  Caesar." 

The  words  of  Jesus  had  summoned  Pilate  before  the 
just  Judge  of  all  the  earth,  and,  impressed  with  a  sense 
of  his  responsibility  to  this  highest  court,  he  sought  to  re- 
lease Jesus ;  but  the  cry  of  the  multitude  reminded  him  of 
his  dependence  on  Tiberius  Cassar,  and  Caesar  seemed  a 
nearer  and  more  real  monarch  than  the  King  of  kings. 
Pilate  could  not  afford  to  ofifend  Caesar  even  to  please  him 
who  rules  on  high.  He  had  no  real  faith  in  God ;  more 
than  one  complaint  against  his  government  had  already 
gone  to  Rome,  and  if  this  cry,  that  he  was  not  Caesar's 
friend,  should  be  added,  he  might  lose  his  place.  He  was 
in  the  utmost  perplexity  and  doubt,  and  again  sat  down  on 
the  judgment  seat  at  a  place  called  the  Pavement,  and, 
then,  placing  Jesus  where  he  could  be  seen  by  the  Jews, 
he  said,  "Behold,  your  King!"  His  words  were  met  with 
shouts  and  cries,  "Away  with  him,  away  with  him,  crucify 
him !" 

Pilate  replied,  and,  no  doubt,  with  angry  contempt, 
"Shall  I  crucify  your  king?" 

The  chief  priests  answered,  "We  have  no  king  but 
Cffisar." 


468  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

This  was  the  end  of  the  trial.  The  Jews  had  rejected 
their  Messiah  and  demanded  that  he  should  be  put  to 
death.  Pilate's  effort  to  save  Jesus  had  compelled  them 
to  choose  a  noted  robber,  possibly  a  false  Christ,  in  pref- 
erence to  their  own  Messiah,  and,  in  order  to  destroy 
Jesus,  they  openly  proclaimed  that  they  had  no  king  but 
Caesar. 

There  still  remained  one  act ;  an  act  that  could  not  free 
the  Roman  governor  from  responsibility,  and  yet  it  did 
emphasize  the  responsibility  assumed  by  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple. When  Pilate  saw  that  he  could  not  save  Jesus  with- 
out facing  an  insurrection,  he  took  water  and  washed  his 
hands  in  the  presence  of  the  multitude,  saying,  "I  am  in- 
nocent of  the  blood  of  this  righteous  man ;  see  ye  to  it." 
All  the  people  answered,  "His  blood  be  on  us,  and  on  our 
children." 

"He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  heard  and  saw  it  all. 
That  water  did  not  wash  away  the  guilt  of  Pilate  when  he 
condemned  an  innocent  man ;  but  it  did  help  to  fix  on  the 
Jewish  people  the  entire  responsibility  for  the  blackest 
crime  recorded  in  all  the  pages  of  human  history.  How 
terribly  that  crime  has  been  avenged  let  history  tell.  The 
Jews  would  have  no  king  but  Caesar,  and,  before  a  gener- 
ation had  passed,  a  Caesar  had  besieged  Jerusalem,  de- 
stroying the  city  and  the  temple.  In  that  siege  a  million 
Jews  miserably  perished,  and  for  nineteen  centuries  the 
Jews  have  been  scattered  abroad  over  the  face  of  the 
earth.    They  knew  not  the  day  of  their  visitation. 

The  trial  was  ended,  the  Son  of  man  was  sentenced  to 
death  by  crucifixion.  In  all  generations  men  will  read  and 
say  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  "crucified  under 
Pontius  Pilate."  In  the  providence  of  God,  Pilate  had  the 
great  responsibility  of  pronouncing  judgment  on  the  Son 
of  God,    He  sought  in  many  ways  to  escape  that  responsi- 


BEFORE  PILATE  469 

bility,  but  he  could  not.  His  great  question  was,  "What 
shall  I  do  with  Jesus  who  is  called  Christ?"  And  he 
answered  it  by  ordering  his  crucifixion. 

The  cause  of  Pilate's  failure  in  the  great  crisis  of  his 
life  is  indicated  by  his  question,  "What  is  truth?"  Had 
he  known  the  truth,  the  truth  would  have  set  him  free, 
and  he  would  have  done  right.  His  wisdom  was  of  this 
world,  not  the  wisdom  that  cometh  from  above.  He  had 
righteous  instincts,  but  he  was  in  the  presence  of  the 
powers  of  darkness  and  did  not  realize  that  he  was  in  the 
presence  of  God,  the  ruler  and  rewarder  of  men.  Had 
he  known  the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  God  had 
sent,  he  might  have  sacrificed  his  mortal  life,  but  he  would 
have  inherited  eternal  life.  The  question  that  Pilate 
answered  when  he  wrote  his  order  for  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  question  that  every  man  must  answer 
who  hears  the  gospel,  and  it  may  be  that  many  who  con- 
demn Pilate  are  following  his  example. 


LXIV 
THE  CRUCIFIXION 

Mark  14:38.  "And  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  rent  in  twain 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom." 

(Matthew  27:  27-56;  Mark  15  :  16-41 ;  Luke  23  :  26-49 ;  John 
19:  17-37) 

WE  do  not  undertake  to  reconcile  the  narratives 
of  Mark  and  John  as  to  the  exact  hour  of  the 
day  at  which  Jesus  was  led  away  to  be  crucified, 
except  to  say  that  the  two  writers  evidently  used  different 
methods  of  reckoning  time,  and  that,  in  all  probability, 
Mark  specifies  the  hour  according  to  the  Jewish  method 
of  reckoning.  The  third  hour  would,  therefore,  be  nine 
o'clock  in  the  forenoon. 

The  ridicule  and  mockery  of  Jesus,  reported  by  John  as 
taking  place  immediately  after  the  scourging,  was  inter- 
rupted by  Pilate  in  order  that  he  might  present  Jesus  to 
the  multitude  and  make  a  last  appeal  to  their  pity;  and 
when  this  appeal  failed  and  Jesus  was  sentenced,  he  was 
again  led  into  the  prsetorium  where  the  more  elaborate 
mockery,  abuse  and  ridicule,  spoken  of  by  Matthew  and 
Mark,  occurred. 

Our  Christian  civilization  has  so  modified  the  treatment 
of  prisoners  who  have  been  condemned  to  death  that  we 
can  hardly  understand  how  any  one,  having  the  slightest 
semblance  of  manhood,  could  find  it  in  his  heart  to  torture 
a  poor  condemned  prisoner  as  these  prsetorium  guards — 

470 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  471 

not  Roman  soldiers — tortured  and  abused  the  pure  and 
perfect  Son  of  man  after  he  had  been  scourged  and  sen- 
tenced to  death.  Nevertheless,  the  morbid  curiosity  that 
brings  a  crowd  to  the  court  room  to  gloat  over  abnormal 
exhibitions  of  crime  and  wretchedness,  and  the  demoniacal 
fury  of  mobs  show  that  human  nature,  led  by  the  powers 
of  darkness,  is  always  the  same,  and  is  capable  of  un- 
speakable cruelty.  These  vile,  ignoble  guards  gloated 
over  suffering,  and  found  fiendish  delight  in  going  through 
all  the  parts  of  a  mock  coronation,  putting  on  the  scarlet 
or  purple  robe,  and  pressing  the  crown  of  thorns  on  the 
bleeding  brow  of  the  Son  of  God,  while  they  cried,  "Hail, 
King  of  the  Jews !"  To  contrast  the  spirit  of  these  cruel, 
inhuman  persecutors  with  the  spirit  of  the  compassionate 
Son  of  man  on  whom  they  were  heaping  ridicule  and  all 
kinds  of  abuse,  is  to  contrast  the  spirit  of  hell  with  the 
spirit  of  heaven. 

After  the  guard  of  soldiers  had  grown  weary  of  their 
cruel,  brutality,  they  stripped  Jesus  of  the  scarlet  robe 
and  put  on  him  his  own  garments  and  led  him  forth  to 
execution.  Two  other  prisoners  were  to  be  crucified  with 
him,  that  the  visitors  to  the  feast  might  carry  with  them 
to  their  homes  a  dread  of  Roman  punishment.  As  was 
the  custom,  Jesus  went  forth  bearing  the  cross  on  whch 
he  was  to  die ;  but  he  had  not  tasted  food  since  the  pass- 
over  supper,  and  his  agony  in  Gethsemane,  his  trials  be- 
fore the  Jewish  courts,  before  Pilate  and  before  Herod, 
his  scourging  and  abuse,  had  exhausted  his  strength  so 
that  he  was  physically  unable  to  carry  his  cross  to  the 
place  of  execution,  and  sank  beneath  the  load.  The  sol- 
diers then  pressed  into  service  an  African  from  Cyrene, 
known  as  the  father  of  Rufus  and  Alexander,  and  com- 
pelled him  to  bear  the  cross  after  Jesus. 


4/2  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

We  have  no  reliable  information  as  to  the  exact  place  of 
execution.  It  was  called  Golgotha,  or  Calvary,  which 
means  "a  skull,''  but  whether  it  took  its  name  from  its 
resemblance  to  a  human  skull,  or  from  the  fact  that  the 
skulls  of  those  who  had  been  crucified  could  be  seen  there, 
no  one  knows.  We  are  accustomed  to  think  and  speak  of 
Calvary  as  a  hill,  but  we  have  no  reliable  information  to 
warrant  our  regarding  it  as  an  elevated  place.  The  sieges 
through  which  the  city  of  Jerusalem  has  passed,  and  the 
changes  in  the  wall  have  so  thoroughly  changed  the  place 
that  there  could  be  no  possibility  of  our  ever  knowing  the 
exact  spot.  We  only  know  that  it  was  outside  the  city 
gate,  and  not  far  from  the  city. 

There  are  many  traditions  concerning  the  via  dolorosa, 
but  only  one  incident  is  recorded  by  the  evangelist  Luke, 
and  it  probably  occurred  after  the  cross  had  been  laid  on 
Simon  the  Cyrenean.  Only  one  voice  had  been  heard  in 
our  Lord's  defense  when  he  was  on  trial,  and  that  was 
the  voice  of  a  pagan  woman  ;  and,  now,  as  he  is  led  out  to 
execution,  Luke  says,  "There  followed  him  a  great  multi- 
tude of  the  people  and  of  women  who  bewailed  and  la- 
mented him." 

It  is  a  remarkable  statement.  Where  were  the  disciples 
who  had  been  with  him  for  three  years  ?  Where  were  the 
blind  whose  eyes  he  had  opened  ?  Where  were  the  lepers 
he  had  cleansed?  Did  none  of  these  weep  as  they  saw 
their  benefactor's  sufferings  ?  It  is  probable  that  the  exhi- 
bitions of  grief  on  the  part  of  the  women  were  less  re- 
strained and  controlled  than  the  no  less  sincere  grief  of 
many  of  the  men  who  were  in  the  procession ;  neverthe- 
less, Jesus  addresses  himself  especially  to  the  women, 
saying,  "Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep  not  for  me,  but 
weep  for  yourselves  and  for  your  children.  For  behold, 
the  days  are  coming,  in  which  they  shall  say,  Blessed  are 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  473 

the  barren,  and  the  breasts  that  never  gave  suck.  Then 
shall  they  begin  to  say  to  the  mountains,  Fall  on  us,  and  to 
the  hills,  Cover  us."  "For  if  they  do  these  things  in  the 
green  tree,  what  shall  be  done  in  the  dry  ?" 

It  was  Christ-like  for  Jesus  to  forget  his  own  suffering 
and  prepare  these  weeping  ones  to  meet  the  sorrows  that 
were  coming  upon  them.  But  what  is  meant  by  the  "green 
tree  and  the  dry?"  Was  he,  suffering  at  the  hands  of 
cruel  men  and  by  the  justice  of  God  in  the  outworking  of 
the  great  plan  of  redemption,  the  "green  tree"  ?  Are  those 
who  reject  him  as  a  personal  Saviour  the  "dry  tree"?  Is 
it  equivalent  to  saying,  if  the  justice  of  God  permits  and 
ordains  such  sufferings  for  his  own  Son  in  order  that  sin 
may  be  expiated,  what  shall  be  done  to  the  sinners  who 
reject  Jesus  as  their  Saviour  and  decide  to  stand  in 
their  own  places  ? 

These  words  of  Jesus  could  be  applied  to  the  sufferings 
of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  when  the  dead  tree  of 
Judaism  was  cut  down  and  the  temple  destroyed,  but  they 
have  a  wider  sweep ;  they  suggest  the  scene  on  the  judg- 
ment day,  when  all  shall  stand  before  the  great  white 
throne. 

The  evangelists  do  not  attempt  to  describe  the  inde- 
scribable horror  of  nailing  the  victim  to  the  "accursed 
tree,"  nor  shall  we  attempt  any  pen  picture  of  this  terrible 
and  revolting  mode  of  execution.  It  was  probably  while 
our  Lord  was  enduring  this  awful  physical  agony  that  he 
cried,  "Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do."  The  followers  of  Christ  when  suffering  grievous 
wrongs  at  the  hands  of  their  fellow  men  have,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  been  able  to  offer  up  this  prayer;  but  only  the 
Captain  of  our  Salvation  could  with  fulness  of  meaning 
offer  such  a  prayer  in  such  circumstances.  He  had  wept 
over  the  sinful  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  who  knew  not  the 


474  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

day  of  their  visitation,  and  now  he  seems  to  forget  his 
own  sufferings  as  he  prays  for  his  murderers.  As  we  read 
these  words  we  catch  a  ghmpse  of  the  omnipotence  of 
love  and  the  boundlessness  of  divine  compassion. 

It  was  probably  before  the  nailing  to  the  cross  that 
Jesus  was  offered  wine  mingled  with  an  opiate,  but  he 
would  not  drink  it,  choosing  rather  to  suffer  the  agony  of 
the  cup  that  he  had  accepted  from  the  Father  in  order  to 
redeem  his  people. 

Whether  by  design  or  by  accident  the  cross  to  which 
Jesus  was  nailed  was  between  the  other  two,  so  that  in  his 
dying  agony  he  had  a  malefactor  on  either  side,  and  the 
prophecy  that  he  was  numbered  with  transgressors  was 
fulfilled  and  emphasized. 

The  superscription  over  Jesus  seems  to  have  been  un- 
noticed by  the  Jewish  rulers  until  after  the  cross  had  been 
erected,  but,  when  they  saw,  written  in  Latin,  Greek  and 
Hebrew,  so  that  all  might  read,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
King  of  the  Jews,"  the  chief  priests  came  to  Pilate,  saying, 
"Write  not  The  King  of  the  Jews,  but  that  he  said,  I  am 
King  of  the  Jews." 

To  this  request  Pilate  replied,  "What  I  have  written  I 
have  written." 

The  Jews  had  rejected  their  king,  and  had  secured  his 
crucifixion,  and  the  writing  was  not  changed.  The  true 
King  of  the  Jews  and  King  of  men  was  on  his  throne  of 
power  when  he  was  lifted  up  from  the  earth  on  the  cross. 
The  malice  and  hatred  and  envy  of  the  Jews  had  placed 
him  on  a  throne  where  he  would  draw  all  men  unto  him- 
self, and.  would  establish  a  world-wide  and  everlasting 
kingdom.  The  inscription,  written  by  Pilate's  order,  may 
have  been  intended  for  a  deadly  insult  to  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple, but  it  was  true.  The  sufferer  on  the  cross  was  indeed 
the  King  of  the  Jews  and  the  King  of  men.    Things  are 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  475 

not  always  what  they  seem,  and  what  seemed  to  short- 
sighted men  a  victory  of  the  prince  of  this  world  and  of 
wicked  men,  was,  in  reality,  the  triumph  of  the  Prince  of 
peace,  the  triumph  of  good  over  evil,  and  the  casting  out 
of  the  prince  of  this  world.  Christ  on  the  cross  was  and 
is  the  mighty  Saviour  and  Conqueror  of  a  lost  world. 

Mark  tells  us  that  the  crucifixion  took  place  at  the  third 
hour  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon.  After  the  cruci- 
fixion, four  soldiers  and  a  centurion,  possibly  four  soldiers 
for  each  victim,  were  left  to  guard  against  any  possible  at- 
tempt to  rescue  the  sufferers.  These  four  soldiers  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  divide  amongst  themselves  the  garments 
of  Jesus,  giving  to  each  one  a  part.  When  they  came  to 
the  coat  or  tunic,  and  found  it  was  woven  from  the  top 
throughout,  and  seamless,  they  cast  lots  for  it. 

As  we  read  this  record,  we  are  amazed  that  men  should 
be  so  utterly  cruel  and  compassionless  in  the  presence  of 
such  mortal  agony,  but  the  inspired  writer  reminds  us  that 
this  incident  formed  a  part  of  the  divine  plan,  for  he  says 
this  was  done,  "that  the  Scripture  might  be  fulfilled,  which 
saith, 

"They  parted  my  garments  among  them, 
And  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots."     (Ps.  22:  17.) 

In  immediate  connection  with  his  report  of  this  action 
of  the  guards,  John  relates  another  incident  that  reveals 
the  exquisite  filial  affection  of  Jesus,  even  when  he  is  in 
mortal  agony.  The  mother  of  Jesus,  with  Mary  the  wife 
of  Cleopas,  Mary  Magdalene,  and  John,  the  beloved  dis- 
ciple, was  standing  by  the  cross.  The  words  spoken  by 
the  aged  Simeon  were  fulfilled  in  part,  at  least,  for  a  sword 
was  piercing  through  Mary's  own  soul  as  she  gazed  help- 
lessly on  her  beloved  Son  hanging  on  the  cross  in  mortal 


476  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

agony.  Did  her  faith  waiver  in  this  dark  and  dreadful 
hour  ?  Did  she  still  believe  that  her  Son  should  be  known 
as  the  Son  of  the  Most  High,  and  that  he  should  sit  on 
the  throne  of  David,  reigning  over  the  house  of  Jacob 
forever?  Could  she  still  say,  as  she  had  once  said,  "My 
soul  doth  magnify  the  Lord?" 

These  questions  are  not  answered  for  us,  and  we  can- 
not answer  them,  but  the  evangelist  John  tells  us  that 
Jesus  saw  his  mother  and  the  beloved  disciple  standing 
by  his  cross ;  that  he  first  said  to  his  mother,  "Woman, 
behold  thy  son!"  and  then  said  to  John,  "Behold  thy 
mother !"  His  hands  were  nailed  to  the  cross  and  he  could 
not  accompany  his  words  with  a  gesture,  but  his  meaning 
could  not  be  mistaken,  and  from  that  time  onward  the 
mother  of  Jesus  made  the  home  of  the  beloved  disciple  her 
home.  The  sufferings  of  Jesus  did  not  lead  him  to  lose 
sight  of  the  tender  love  that  had  cherished  him  in  the  old 
home  at  Nazareth,  nor  did  he  forget  the  present  sorrows 
or  future  needs  of  his  mother.  He  had  lived  for  others, 
and  when  the  end  of  life  came  he  was  poorer  than  the 
foxes  and  the  birds ;  the  soldiers  had  seized  and  divided 
amongst  themselves  everything  that  he  could  have  called 
his  own,  and  he  could  make  no  provision  for  his  mother 
except  to  commend  her  to  the  affectionate  care  of  his  be- 
loved disciple,  and  this  he  did  as  he  hung  on  the  cross. 

As  we  read  the  brief  record  of  our  Lord's  thoughtful 
care  of  his  mother,  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  heaven,  and 
breathe  an  atmosphere  of  love.  When  we  look  at  the  sur- 
roundings, and  hear  the  words  of  Christ's  enemies,  we 
catch  a  glimpse  of  hell,  and  breathe  the  atmosphere  of 
hatred  and  malice.  It  was  not  enough  that  Jesus  the 
Christ  had  been  condemned  and  crucified ;  it  was  not 
enough  that  he  was  enduring  the  unspeakable  agony  of  the 
most  horrible  form  of  death  that  fiendish  cruelty  couM 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  477 

invent ;  the  chief  priests,  the  scribes  and  the  elders  of  the 
people  joined  with  the  mob  in  seeking  to  add,  if  possible, 
to  the  agony  of  these  last  hours.  They  railed  on  him, 
wagging  their  heads,  saying  in  derision  and  scorn,  "Ha ! 
thou  that  destroyeth  the  temple  and  buildest  it  in  three 
days,  save  thyself,  and  come  down  from  the  cross." 

Seeking  to  mock  and  revile  Jesus,  without  knowing  it, 
they  proclaimed  his  true  spirit  and  his  great  mission,  when 
they  said,  "He  saved  others;  himself  he  cannot  save." 
He  could  only  come  down  from  the  cross  and  save  himself 
by  abandoning  his  purpose  to  save  others,  for  he  came  to 
give  himself  a  ransom  for  others. 

One  of  the  malefactors,  and  possibly  both  at  the  first, 
joined  in  this  reproach,  but  their  own  mortal  agony  led 
them  very  different  ways ;  for,  while  one  railed  on  Jesus, 
saying,  "Art  thou  not  the  Christ?  save  thyself  and  us"; 
the  other  rebuked  him  saying,  "Dost  thou  not  even  fear 
God,  seeing  thou  art  in  the  same  condemnation  ?  And  we 
indeed  justly ;  forwe  receive  the  due  reward  of  our  deeds ; 
but  this  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss."  Then  he  said, 
"Jesus,  remember  me  when  thou  comest  in  thy  kingdom." 

So  far  as  earthly  courts  and  the  judgments  of  men  were 
concerned,  these  two  men  were  in  the  same  condemnation ; 
but,  in  the  sight  of  him  who  reads  the  heart  and  judges 
righteously,  they  were  separated  by  a  great  gulf.  One 
was  a  bitter,  malicious,  unbelieving  scoffer,  while  the  heart 
of  the  other  had  been  touched,  and  he  was  a  humble, 
believing,  penitent,  saved  sinner,  and  Jesus  said  to  him, 
"To-day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise."  He  was  on 
the  cross  and  had  only  a  few  hours  to  live,  and  these  few 
hours  would  be  spent  in  mortal  agony ;  yet,  he  was  in- 
finitely better  off  than  the  sordid,  sensual,  malicious  Sad- 
ducean  priests,  scribes  and  rulers,  who  passed  by  and 
mocked  the  suffering  Saviour.    He  had  found  and  ac- 


478  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

cepted  the  Saviour  whom  they  had  rejected  and  crucified, 
and  he  would  soon  be  with  Jesus  in  Paradise,  in  the  rest- 
ing place  of  the  blessed  dead. 

When  the  sixth  hour  came  there  was  darkness  over  the 
whole  land  until  the  ninth  hour.  The  first  three  evangel- 
ists tell  us  of  this  three  hours  darkness,  Luke  speaking 
of  it  as  "the  sun's  light  failing."  We  have  no  explanation 
of  the  nature  or  extent  of  this  darkness,  except  that  it  was 
"over  the  whole  land,"  and  that  it  lasted  from  the  sixth 
to  the  ninth  hour.  There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that 
it  was  neither  an  ordinary,  nor  an  extraordinary  eclipse ; 
but  we  can  either  believe  that  it  was  a  prelude  to  the  com- 
ing earthquake,  and  produced  by  natural  causes,  or  we 
may  believe  that  it  was  wholly  supernatural,  the  direct  act 
of  God  forbidding  the  sun  to  shine  on  this  last  act  in  the 
divine  tragedy.  The  Christian  believer  will  see  in  it  the 
hand  of  God  in  either  case.  He  who  planned  man's  re- 
demption before  the  foundation  of  the  world  can  work  out 
his  plans  with  or  without  the  use  of  secondary  causes. 

When  the  ninth  hour  came  Jesus  cried  out  with  a  loud 
voice,  "Eloi,  Eloi,  lama  sabacthani:  My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  After  this  he  said,  "I 
thirst."  Immediately,  one  of  them  who  stood  by  "ran  and 
took  a  sponge  and  put  it  on  a  reed  and  gave  him  to  drink," 
and,  with  others,  said,  "Let  be ;  let  us  see  whether  Elijah 
cometh  to  save  him." 

It  is  thought  by  some  that  this  was  said,  not  in  earnest, 
but  in  derision  because  it  seems  inconsistent  with  the  ridi- 
cule and  scoffing  that  preceded  it ;  but  may  we  not  rather 
believe  that  the  hours  of  darkness  had  awed  and  impressed 
these  scoffers  until  they  were  ready  to  expect  some  divine 
interposition.  They  did  not  see  in  this  loud  cry  of  the 
dying  Saviour  what  the  Christian  sees ;  for  they  did  not 
understand  how  the  Lamb  of  God  was  to  bear  the  sins 


tHE  CRUCIFIXION  479 

of  his  people  and  reconcile  them  to  God  making  expiation 
for  their  sin.  Nor  can  we  comprehend  the  whole  mystery 
of  suffering,  so  as  to  understand  or  explain  the  horror  that 
caused  this  cry  of  distress.  We  only  know  that  when  Je- 
sus was  nailed  to  the  cross,  he  prayed  for  his  enemies,  say- 
ing, "Father,  forgive  them" ;  when  he  hung  on  the  cross 
he  thought  of  the  sufferings  of  his  mother,  and  secured 
her  a  home ;  when  the  penitent  thief  appealed  to  him,  he 
spoke  words  of  comfort;  and  in  all  his  sufferings  there 
was  no  cry  of  distress  until  he  was  forsaken  of  God. 

After  the  sponge  had  been  pressed  to  his  lips,  Jesus 
said,  "Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit" ;  and 
then  exclaiming,  "It  is  finished,"  he  bowed  his  head,  and 
gave  up  the  spirit.  At  that  moment  the  veil  of  the  temple 
was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom.  This  fact  is 
reported  by  the  first  three  evangelists,  and  Matthew  adds, 
"The  earth  did  quake,  and  the  rocks  were  rent ;  and  the 
tombs  were  opened ;  and  many  bodies  of  the  saints  that 
had  fallen  asleep  were  raised ;  and,  coming  forth  out  of 
the  tombs  after  his  resurrection,  they  entered  into  the 
holy  city,  and  appeared  unto  many." 

The  rending  of  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  the  most  sig- 
nificant fact,  and  was  reported  by  the  three  inspired 
writers.  There  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  particular  veil 
referred  to  was  the  veil  that  hung  between  the  holy  place 
and  the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  the  rending  of  that  veil 
signified  that  the  way  into  the  holiest  had  been  opened. 
The  account  of  the  earthquake  rending  the  rocks  may 
suggest  the  physical  connection  between  the  death  of 
Christ  on  Calvary  and  the  rending  the  veil  of  the  temple ; 
but  the  real  connection  was  symbolic  and  supernatural. 
(See  Hebrews  10:  19-21.) 

It  does  not  lie  within  the  sphere  of  this  work  to  enter 
into  any  discussion  of  the  questions  concerning  the  res- 


48o  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

urrection  of  "many  bodies  of  the  saints"  and  their  ap- 
pearance after  Christ's  resurrection ;  but,  we  may  say, 
in  passing,  that  no  one  who  accepts  the  great  central 
truths  of  the  gospel  need  be  troubled  by  the  fact  that  this 
incident  is  not  more  fully  explained.  As  the  rending 
of  the  veil  of  the  temple,  which  was  in  a  peculiar  sense 
the  symbol  of  Christ's  body,  the  visible  covering  that  en- 
shrined and  concealed  the  abode  of  deity,  indicated  the 
opening  up  of  a  new  and  living  way  of  access  to  God, 
so,  too,  the  opening  of  these  graves  symbolized  the  truth 
that  Christ's  death  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  for  his 
people. 

The  Roman  centurion  who  witnessed  the  death  of 
Jesus,  and  heard  his  last  words,  and  saw  some  of  these 
supernatural  events  exclaimed,  "Truly  this  was  a  just 
man  !  Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God  !"  The  fickle  multi- 
tude, many  of  whom  had  joined  in  the  cry  to  crucify 
Jesus,  when  they  saw  what  was  done,  returned  to  Jerusa- 
lem smiting  upon  their  breasts,  and  there  was  everywhere 
a  feeling  of  distress  and  foreboding  of  coming  sorrows. 

Thus  ended  the  mortal  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the 
Son  of  Man.  To  man's  blindfold  eye  this  life  seemed  a 
great  failure.  It  began  in  a  stable  and  ended  on  a  cross. 
No  man  ever  succeeded  in  arraying  against  himself  more 
deadly  enemies.  The  worldly-wise,  who  knew  him,  could 
not  deny  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  remarkable  powers, 
but  they  would  say  also  that  he  lacked  tact  and  prudence, 
making  enemies  where  he  might  have  made  friends ;  and 
the  friends  he  made  were  weak  and  fickle,  while  the 
enemies  he  made  were  powerful  and  unrelenting.  From 
the  standpoint  of  the  selfish,  sensual,  worldling  the  life 
of  Jesus  was  a  failure.  But,  looked  at  in  the  light  of 
truth,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  real  manhood,  it  was 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  481 

the  most  triumphant  life  that  was  ever  lived  on  this 
earth,  even  if  this  had  been  the  end.  Not  one  blot  is 
found  in  the  whole  record.  In  word,  in  thought,  in  act, 
he  was  always  the  perfect  man.  Neither  the  flattery  of 
friends,  nor  the  threatenings  nor  the  persecutions  of 
enemies;  neither  hope  nor  fear  ever  caused  him  to 
swerve  for  one  moment  from  the  path  of  rectitude.  He 
was  condemned  by  the  ecclesiastical  courts  of  his  own 
nation,  and  was  sentenced  to  death  by  the  civil  govern- 
ment under  which  he  lived ;  yet  the  civil  ruler  proclaimed 
him  innocent ;  the  malefactor,  hanging  on  another  cross, 
confessed  his  own  guilt,  but  declared  Christ  innocent, 
while  the  Roman  officer,  who  witnessed  his  death,  said, 
"Certainly  this  was  a  righteous  man." 

The  study  of  this  life  for  nineteen  hundred  years  has 
resulted  in  the  universal  judgment  that  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth was  holy,  harmless  and  undefiled,  that  he  went  about 
doing  good,  that  he  was  the  unique,  the  perfect  Man. 
These  facts  are  worth  remembering.  They  are  adapted 
to  comfort  sincere,  honest,  pure,  good  men  whom  the 
world  persecutes  and  calls  tactless,  impractical  failures. 
If  men  are  called  on  to  suffer  innocently,  their  sufferings 
serve  to  identify  them  with  Jesus  Christ  the  perfect  man, 
and,  if  they  are  accused  of  imprudence  merely  because 
they  are  loyal  to  truth  and  right,  they  should  remember 
that  the  disciple  is  as  his  Lord. 

But,  more  than  this,  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  is  the 
crowning  proof  of  the  wickedness  of  the  human  heart. 
Men  may  deny  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity,  or  they 
may  make  extravagant  statements  affirming  it ;  but  it 
should  ever  be  remembered  that,  when  the  Perfect  Man 
came  into  the  world,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  learned 
and  the  ignorant,  the  religious  formalist  and  the  godless 


482  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

sensualist,  the  church  and  the  state,  conspired  and  com- 
bined to  persecute  and  murder  him.  When  men  could 
combine  to  crucify  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  is  there  any  crime 
that  would  seem  too  enormous,  too  hideous? 

The  whole  history  of  Christ's  life  and  death,  as  we  find 
it  in  the  narratives  by  the  different  evangelists,  shows  that 
he  was  infinitely  more  than  the  perfect  man ;  and,  in  his 
crucifixion,  we  see  more  than  the  wicked  acts  of  wicked 
men.  In  Christ's  death  we  see  the  outworking  of  the 
divine  plan  for  revealing  God's  sovereign  love  in  redeem- 
ing his  people.  Wicked  men,  with  wicked  hands,  took 
and  slew  Jesus,  but  they  were,  at  the  same  time  only 
working  out  the  determinate  counsel  and  fore-knowledge 
of  God.  It  was  necessary  that  Jesus  should  suffer  death  in 
order  to  redeem  his  people,  for  "what  the  law  could  not 
do  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,"  God  did  ac- 
complish by  sending  his  own  Son  and  making  him  an 
offering  for  sin.  Jesus  Christ  laid  down  his  life  willingly, 
when  he  poured  out  his  soul  unto  death  and  bore  our 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  "We  did  esteem  him 
stricken,  smitten  of  God  and  afflicted,  but  he  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions  and  pierced  for  our  sins."  There 
may  be  some  question  whether  we  should  sing, 

"When  God  the  mighty  Maker  died," 

but  there  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  sufferer  on  the 
cross  was  the  divine  Son  of  God,  as  well  as  the  son  of 
man. 

In  the  death  of  Christ  we  see  what  sin  in  human  hearts 
is  capable  of  doing,  and  thus  see  sin  from  the  human 
view-point.  In  the  death  of  Christ,  as  it  is  explained 
in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  we  see  Jesus  suffering  for  the 
sins   of  his   people,   and,   therefore,   see   sin   from   the 


THE  CRUCIFIXION  483 

view-point  of  divine  justice,  or  as  the  justice  of  God 
sees  it.  In  the  death  of  Christ  we  see  the  supreme  exhi- 
bition of  divine  love  for  sinful  men,  for  God  commend- 
eth  his  love  toward  us  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners 
Christ  died  for  us.  Everything  centers  in  the  death  of 
Christ.  Paul  gave  expression  to  the  very  essence  of 
Christian  faith,  when  he  exclaimed,  "God  forbid  that  I 
should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Eord  Jesus  Christ," 
and  every  true  disciple  can  sing, 

"In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o'er  the  wrecks  of  time; 
All  the  Hght  of  sacred  story, 
Gathers  round  its  head  sublime." 

The  Romans  usually  left  the  bodies  of  those  who  had 
been  crucified  on  their  crosses  until  they  decayed ;  but 
the  Jewish  rulers,  who  had  not  scrupled  to  condemn 
and  crucify  the  innocent,  were  not  willing  to  have  a  dead 
body  hanging  on  the  cross  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  they, 
therefore,  besought  Pilate  to  command  the  soldiers  to 
break  the  legs  of  those  who  were  crucified,  so  that  their 
deaths  might  be  hastened  and  their  bodies  removed  be- 
fore the  beginning  of  the  Sabbath.  This  request  was 
readily  ganted ;  but  it  was  not  carried  out  so  far  as  the 
body  of  Jesus  was  concerned.  Had  his  legs  been  broken, 
he  would  have  failed  in  one  of  the  specifications  con- 
cerning the  paschal  lamb,  of  which  God  had  said,  "Neith- 
er shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof."  When  the  soldiers 
had  broken  the  legs  of  the  two  malefactors  they  came  to 
Jesus,  and,  when  they  found  that  he  was  dead  already, 
"they  brake  not  his  legs;  but  one  of  them  with  a  spear 
pierced  his  side,  and  straightway  there  came  out  blood 
and  water."    By  this  act,  another  Scripture  was  fulfilled, 


484  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

for  it  was  written,  "They  shall  look  on  him  whom  they 
pierced."  (Zech.  12:10.)  No  part  of  the  divine  plan 
could  be  set  aside,  and  no  type  nor  promise  could  fail. 
It  may  not  be  possible  to  understand  or  explain  the 
great  mystery  of  suffering,  why  it  was  necessary  for 
Jesus  Christ  to  die  in  order  to  redeem  his  people.  We 
may  not  be  able  to  comprehend  all  the  meaning  of  the 
prophecy  that  he  was  to  be  wounded  for  our  transgres- 
sions, or  the  declaration  of  the  apostle  Paul  that  he  bore 
our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  Nevertheless,  the 
great  fact  is  clearly  revealed  that  it  was  necessary  for 
Jesus  to  die  in  order  to  save  sinners.  Jesus  declared  that 
for  this  cause  he  came  into  the  world.  He  said  that,  as 
Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness  even  so 
must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up  that  whosoever  believeth 
on  him  should  not  perish  but  should  have  eternal  life. 
He  declared  also  that,  when  he  was  lifted  up  from  the 
earth,  he  would  become  the  great  center  of  beneficient  at- 
traction for  the  whole  world,  and  to-day,  we  see  a  mar- 
vellous fulfillment  of  this  strange  prophecy. 


LXV 
THE  RESURRECTION 

2  Timothy  2 : 8.  "Remember  Jesus  Christ,  risen  from  the 
dead,  of  the  seed  of  David,  according  to  my  gospel." 

(Matthew  27:  57-28:20;  Mark  15:42-16:20;  Luke  23 :  50-24 : 
53;  John  19:38-21:25.) 

THE  Pharisees  took  a  prominent,  if  not  the  leading 
part  in  persecuting  Jesus  during  his  public  min- 
istry, and  the  Sadducees  seemed  comparatively 
indifferent.  This  was  probably  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Jesus  was  constantly  brought  into  direct  contact  with  the 
Pharisees  in  the  synagogues  throughout  Galilee,  while  he 
had  but  little  to  do  with  priests,  scribes  and  sanhedrists, 
except  when  he  came  to  Jerusalem.  The  Pharisees  joined 
with  the  Sadducees  to  destroy  Jesus ;  nevertheless,  it  was 
the  Sadducees  rather  than  the  Pharisees  that  secured  his 
crucifixion.  The  ordinary  Pharisee  had  some  conscience, 
and  cared  for  religious  truth,  so  that  he  was  only  wholly 
bad  when  he  was  thoroughly  hypocritical.  His  peculiar, 
besetting  sin  was  hypocrisy.  There  were  amongst  the 
Pharisees  some  sincere  men  who  secretly,  if  not  publicly, 
were  friendly  toward  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  from  some 
of  the  Pharisees  Jesus  received  courteous  treatment.  The 
Sadducees,  on  the  other  hand,  were  bitterly  hostile  when- 
ever they  came  in  contact  with  him.  His  indignation  was 
kindled  against  them  when,  at  the  beginning  of  his  public 
ministry,  he  saw  their  covetous,  avaricious,  sacrilegious 
traffic  in  the  temple,  and  drove  the  money  changers  from. 

485 


486  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

his  Father's  house.  This  interference  with  a  business  that 
yielded  the  high  priest  and  other  Sadducees  large  reve- 
nues incurred  their  deadly  enmity,  and  they  only  waited 
for  an  opportunity  to  wreak  their  vengeance.  They  were 
sensual  materialists  who  only  professed  godliness  in  order 
to  increase  their  gains  or  worldly  wealth.  Not  one  of 
them  is  ever  reported  as  doing  Jesus  a  kindness  or  show- 
ing him  a  courtesy.  When  our  Lord  cleansed  the  temple 
the  second  time,  declaring  that  the  traffickers  had  made 
his  Father's  house  a  den  of  robbers,  there  was  an  irrec- 
oncilable conflict  with  the  chief  priests,  scribes,  san- 
hedrists  and  the  whole  Sadducean  party,  and  this  con- 
flict ended  in  the  crucifixion.  In  the  trials  of  Jesus  the 
Pharisees  seemed  to  drop  out  of  sight.  They  had  helped 
to  prepare  the  way  for  it,  and  had  their  responsibility, 
but  they  were  no  longer  leaders. 

Jesus  died  on  the  cross  at  the  ninth  hour,  or  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  Sabbath  would  be  ush- 
ered in  by  sunset.  The  Jews  had  provided  against  cere- 
monial pollution  by  having  so  arranged  that  the  bodies 
should  be  taken  from  the  cross,  but  they  had  not  troubled 
themselves  about  the  burial.  It  had  been  written  that 
Jesus  should  make  his  grave  "with  the  rich  in  his  death" ; 
but  how  was  this  to  be  accomplished?  Who  amongst  the 
disciples  of  Jesus  was  rich?  Or  what  rich  man  would 
accept  the  odium  of  identifying  himself  with  the  cruci- 
fied one? 

These  questions  are  answered  as  we  read  of  Joseph  of 
Arimathea,  a  rich  Pharisee,  a  disciple  of  Jesus,  but  se- 
cretly up  to  this  time  for  fear  of  the  Jews.  This  man 
came  to  Pilate  and  begged  the  body  of  Jesus  that  he  might 
bury  it  in  his  own  new  tomb.  When  Pilate  ascertained 
from  the  centurion  that  Jesus  was  dead,  he  granted  Jo- 
seph's request,  and  Joseph,  together  with  Nicodemus,  an- 


THE  RESURRECTION  487 

other  Pharisee,  took  the  body,  wrapped  it  in  fine  linen, 
using  a  hundred  pounds  of  a  mixture  of  myrrh  and  aloes, 
and  laid  it  in  Joseph's  new  rock-hewn  tomb,  in  which  no 
man  had  ever  yet  been  laid.  This  noble  act  does  not  war- 
rant us  in  excusing  Joseph  and  Nicodemus  for  not  giving 
Jesus  their  open  and  hearty  support  while  he  was  living; 
but  it  touches  every  Christian  heart,  and  will  ever  be  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  profoundly  pathetic  incidents  con- 
nected with  the  death  of  our  Lord.  As  we  read  of  the 
burial  of  Jesus,  our  indignation  against  Pharisees  gives 
place  to  pity  and  compassion. 

When  the  body  of  Jesus  was  laid  in  the  tomb,  a  great 
stone  was  rolled  to  the  door.  This  completed  the  burial, 
but  Mary  Magdalene,  and  Mary  the  mother  of  James, 
and  others,  who  had  followed  Jesus  out  of  Galilee,  had 
witnessed  the  acts  of  Joseph  and  Nicodemus,  and,  having 
marked  the  place,  went  home  to  prepare  spices,  so  that 
after  the  Sabbath  they  might  bring  their  tributes  of  af- 
fection and  complete  the  embalming  of  the  body  of  their 
Lord, 

When  the  enemies  of  Jesus  secured  his  crucifixion, 
instead  of  resting  on  the  Sabbath,  for  which  they  pro- 
fessed to  have  so  great  reverence,  they  went  to  Pilate  on 
the  Sabbath,  saying,  "Sir,  we  remember  that  this  deceiver 
said,  while  he  was  yet  alive,  After  three  days  I  will  rise 
again.  Command,  therefore,  that  the  sepulchre  be  made 
sure  until  the  third  day." 

There  is  no  record  of  Jesus  ever  having  said  this  to 
the  Jews,  and  they  probably  referred  to  his  declaration 
concerning  the  temple  of  his  body,  when  he  said,  "De- 
stroy this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will  rear  it  up." 
When  Jesus  was  on  trial,  false  witnesses  had  testified 
that  he  had  threatened  to  destroy  the  temple  and  rear  it 
up  in  three  days,  and  the  rulers  then  gave  no  hint  that 


488  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

they  had  understood  him  to  speak  of  the  temple  of  his 
body ;  but,  now,  they  incidentally  reveal  the  fact  that 
they  knew  he  was  speaking  of  his  own  body. 

The  chief  priests  and  Pharisees  did  not  profess  to  fear 
that  Jesus  would  rise,  but  they  did  profess  to  fear  that 
his  disciples  might  come  and  steal  his  body  and  then  pro- 
claim that  he  had  risen.  Pilate's  contempt  appeared  in 
his  curt  answer,  as  he  said,  "Ye  have  a  guard ;  go  your 
way  and  make  it  as  sure  as  ye  can."  If  the  Jews  really 
feared  that  the  disciples  would  steal  the  body  of  Jesus 
they  should  have  been  satisfied  when  they  affixed  the 
Roman  seal  and  placed  the  guard  of  soldiers.  The  dis- 
ciples, who  had  forsaken  their  Master  while  he  was  alive, 
could  not  be  expected  to  overcome  the  Roman  soldiers, 
break  the  Roman  seal  and  carry  away  the  dead  body. 

The  friends  of  Jesus  rested  on  the  Sabbath,  according 
to  the  commandment.  Whether  they  cherished  any  hope 
of  his  resurrection  as  they  communed  with  their  own 
hearts  and  with  each  other  on  that  sad  day  of  sacred  rest, 
we  do  not  know,  but  we  have  good  reasons  for  believing 
that  they  did  not.  Their  only  source  of  comfort  was  in 
the  thought  that  the  awful  agony  of  the  crucifixion  had 
been  succeeded  by  rest  in  the  tomb,  that  their  friend  had 
gone  where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the  women,  who  had  been 
last  at  the  cross,  were  the  first  at  the  tomb  of  their  be- 
loved Lord.  At  early  dawn,  while  it  was  yet  dark,  Mary 
Magdalene,  Mary  the  mother  of  James,  and  other  women, 
in  different  groups,  came  bringing  their  spices  to  complete 
the  embalming  of  the  body.  They  knew  not  that  a  guard 
of  Roman  soldiers  had  been  stationed  there  and  that  the 
tomb  was  sealed ;  for,  as  they  drew  near,  they  were  say- 
ing amongst  themselves,  "Who  shall  roll  us  away  the 
Stone  from  the  tomb?"    There  were  greater  obstacles  in 


THE  RESURRECTION  489 

the  way  of  their  performing  this  labour  of  love  than  they 
had  imagined.  Not  only  must  the  stone  be  rolled  away; 
the  whole  power  of  the  Roman  government  must  be  met 
and  overcome  before  they  could  touch  the  body  of  their 
Lord.  But  a  greater  power  than  that  of  Rome  was  guard- 
ing that  hallowed  resting  place  of  the  body  of  the  Son  of 
man,  and,  before  the  coming  of  the  women,  "There  was 
a  great  earthquake,  for  an  angel  of  the  Lord  descended 
from  heaven,  and  came  and  rolled  away  the  stone  and 
sat  upon  it.  His  appearance  was  as  lightning  and  his 
raiment  white  as  snow ;  and  for  fear  of  him  the  watchers 
did  quake,  and  become  as  dead  men." 

The  different  evangelists  give  independent  and  very 
different  accounts  of  what  the  women  saw  and  did,  but 
their  accounts  do  not  contradict  each  other.  No  one  pro- 
fesses to  give  a  complete  account,  and  each  one  calls  our 
attention  to  some  particular  incident  without  specifying 
the  exact  order  of  events.  Comparing  all  the  narratives 
we  find  that  Mary  Magdalene  had  the  most  prominent 
part.  She  and  Mary  the  mother  of  James  probably  came 
first  of  all,  and,  when  they  saw  the  great  stone  rolled 
away,  they  entered  into  the  tomb,  and  "saw  a  young  man 
sitting  on  the  right  side  arrayed  in  a  white  robe ;  and 
they  were  amazed."  The  young  man  said  to  them,  "Be 
not  amazed ;  ye  seek  Jesus  the  Nazarene,  who  hath  been 
crucified ;  he  is  risen ;  he  is  not  here ;  behold  the  place 
where  they  laid  him.  But  go  tell  his  disciples  and  Peter, 
He  goeth  before  you  into  Galilee ;  there  shall  ye  see  him, 
as  he  said  unto  you."  After  hearing  this,  the  women 
"went  out  and  fled  from  the  tomb ;  for  trembling  and 
astonishment  had  come  upon  them,  and  they  said  nothing 
to  any  one ;   for  they  were  afraid." 

This  is  Mark's  account  of  what  took  place  that  morn- 
ing, and  it  is  wholly  consistent  with  the  statement  by 


490  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Matthew  that  these  women  were  amongst  the  number  of 
those  who  ran  with  joy  to  bring  the  disciples  word;  and 
with  the  record  found  in  John,  that  Mary  Magdalene  ran 
and  found  Peter  and  John,  and  said  to  them,  "They  have 
taken  away  the  Lord  out  of  the  tomb  and  we  know  not 
where  they  have  laid  him."  At  first,  these  women  were 
so  amazed  that  they  could  speak  to  no  one ;  but,  quickly 
recovering,  they  hastened  to  carry  their  message  that  had 
been  given  them.  Moreover,  if  we  accept  as  genuine  the 
last  twelve  verses  of  the  gospel  by  Mark,  Mary  Magda- 
lene is  mentioned  as  carrying  the  message  to  the  dis- 
ciples. 

The  record  of  L,uke  seems  more  perplexing,  since  he 
speaks  of  two  men  in  dazzling  apparel,  not  sitting,  but 
standing.  These  two  men  say  to  the  affrighted  women, 
"Why  seek  ye  the  living  among  the  dead?  He  is  not 
here,  but  is  risen;  remember  how  he  spake  unto  you, 
when  he  was  yet  in  Galilee,  saying.  The  Son  of  man  must 
be  delivered  up  into  the  hands  of  sinful  men,  and  be 
crucified  and  the  third  day  rise  again."  The  perplexity 
will  vanish,  however,  if  we  recognize  the  fact  that  Luke 
crowds  into  this  brief  statement  the  occurrences  of  forty 
days.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  women  reached 
the  tomb  in  groups,  and  not  simultaneously ;  and  another 
group  of  women  may  have  seen  what  Mary  Magdalene 
did  not  see,  so  that  there  is  no  necessary  conflict  be- 
tween Luke's  account  and  that  of  Mark. 

John  gives  the  longest  and  probably  most  consecutive 
account  of  the  occurrences  at  the  tomb  that  Easter  morn- 
ing ;  and,  reading  his  account,  we  see  how  the  narratives 
of  the  synoptic  writers  fit  into  each  other.  Mary  Magda- 
lene came  first  to  the  tomb,  and,  seeing  the  stone  rolled 
away,  received  her  message  for  Peter ;  then  she  hastened 
to  find  Peter  and  the  other  disciples.    When  she  founcj 


THE  RESURRECTION  491 

Peter  and  John,  she  exclaimed,  "They  have  taken  away 
the  Lord  out  of  the  tomb,  and  we  know  not  where  they 
have  laid  him,"  Peter  and  John  both  ran  to  the  tomb, 
but  John  outran  Peter,  and,  coming  first  to  the  tomb, 
looked  in  and  saw  the  linen  cloths,  and  the  napkin,  but 
did  not  enter.  When  Peter  came  he  entered,  saw  the 
linen  cloths  lying  and  the  napkin,  not  lying  with  the  linen 
cloths,  but  rolled  up  in  a  place  by  itself.  When  John  also 
entered  the  tomb  and  he  saw  and  believed. 

Hitherto  the  disciples  had  not  known  what  was  meant 
by  their  Master's  "rising  from  the  dead."  After  this 
Peter  and  John  went  away  again  to  their  own  homes.  In 
the  meantime,  Mary  Magdalene  had  returned  to  the 
tomb,  and,  after  standing  without  weeping  and  bewil- 
dered, she  stooped  and  looked  into  the  tomb  and  saw  two 
angels  in  white  sitting,  one  at  the  head,  and  one  at  the 
feet,  where  the  body  of  Jesus  had  lain.  The  angels  said 
to  her,  "Woman,  why  weepest  thou?"  she  saith  unto  them, 
"Because  they  have  taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not 
where  they  have  laid  him."  When  she  had  thus  said,  she 
turned  herself  and  beheld  Jesus  standing,  and  knew  not 
that  it  was  Jesus,  but,  supposing  him  to  be  the  gardener, 
exclaimed,  "Sir,  if  thou  hast  borne  him  hence,  tell  me 
where  thou  hast  laid  him,  and  I  will  take  him  away." 
Jesus  said  unto  her,  "Mary."  As  she  heard  that  voice 
calling  her  own  name,  she  turned  and  exclaimed  in  He- 
brew, "Rabboni."  That  one  word,  "Mary,"  spoken  by  her 
risen  Lord,  thrilled  her  whole  being  and  introduced  her  to 
a  new  world.  In  her  transport  of  joy,  she,  who  had  been 
forgiven  much  and  loved  much,  probably  sought  to  clasp 
her  Lord's  feet  that  she  had  once  anointed,  but  "Jesus  said 
unto  her.  Touch  me  not ;  for  I  am  not  yet  ascended  unto 
the  Father,  but  go  unto  my  brethren,  and  say  unto  them,  I 


492  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

ascend  unto  my  Father  and  your  Father,  and  my  God  and 
your  God." 

This  was  the  first  appearance,  and  these  were  the  first 
words  of  the  risen  Jesus.  This  marked  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  humanity.  Jesus  Christ  had  risen  from  the 
dead,  and  appeared  as  the  first  fruits  of  them  that  sleep. 
Job's  question  was  answered ;  a  man  has  Hved  and  died 
and  lives  again,  and  is  alive  forevermore.  Jesus  had 
claimed  the  power  to  lay  down  his  life  and  to  take  it 
again,  and  now  he  has  come  forth  victor  over  death  and 
the  grave.  Others  had  been  raised  from  the  dead,  but 
here  is  the  first  real  victor,  the  first  one  who  could  say, 
"I  am  alive  forevermore." 

Other  women  and  two  of  the  disciples  had  seen  the 
empty  tomb;  other  women  had  been  told  by  the  angels 
that  Jesus  had  risen,  but  Mary  Magdalene  alone  saw  him 
and  heard  his  voice  and  received  from  him  his  first  mes- 
sage as  her  risen  Lord,  when  she  was  directed  to  tell  the 
disciples  of  his  ascension  to  the  Father. 

How  far  Mary  comprehended  the  meaning  of  her  mes- 
sage we  do  not  know.  It  is  probable  that  she  did  not 
stop  to  think  what  our  Lord's  ascending  to  the  Father 
meant;  she  was  so  filled  and  so  thrilled  by  the  thought 
that  he  was  alive  that  all  other  thoughts  were  excluded. 
When  she  found  the  disciples  she  exclaimed,  "I  have  seen 
the  Lord,"  and  then  she  delivered  her  message.  Two  of 
the  disciples  had  seen  the  empty  tomb  and  they  had  be- 
lieved that  Jesus  had  risen  from  the  dead,  but,  when  they 
were  told  that  he  had  been  seen  alive,  they  could  not  and 
did  not  believe. 

The  testimony  of  Mary  Magdalene  was  soon  confirmed 
by  others;  for  it  is  at  least  probable  that  the  account 
recorded  by  the  evangelist  Matthew  (Matthew  28:9-10) 
occurred  soon  after  Jesus  had  appeared  to  Mary.     As- 


THE  RESURRECTION  493 

suming  this  to  be  true,  Jesus  met  the  other  women,  and 
said  to  them,  "All  hail,"  and,  after  they  came  and  took 
hold  of  his  feet  and  worshipped  him,  he  sent  them  also 
to  tell  the  brethren  that  he  was  alive,  and  that  he  would 
meet  them  in  Galilee. 

It  is  impossible'to  determine  the  exact  order  of  events 
at  the  tomb  of  Jesus  on  that  first  Easter  morning,  since 
each  evangelist  evidently  aims  to  convince  his  readers  of 
the  great  fact  of  the  resurrection,  and  loses  sight  of  all 
that  is  merely  incidental.  The  order  of  events  is  not 
important  except  in  so  far  as  a  knowledge  of  the  order 
may  explain  seeming  conflict  in  the  different  accounts, 
and  may  afford  a  fuller  realization  of  the  great  central, 
all  important  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  rose  from  the  dead. 
To  this  great  facts  all  the  evangelists  testify  in  the  most 
unequivocal  and  unmistakable  language,  and  their  ac- 
counts supplement,  explain  and  confirm  each  other.  If 
the  four  accounts  had  been  so  evidently  harmonious  that 
no  thought  of  conflict  could  be  suggested,  the  inference 
might  be  that  the  writers  were  in  collusion,  and  that  the 
narratives  were  not  independent.  If  there  had  been  only 
one  narrative,  many  questions  would  arise,  for  which  we 
would  have  no  satisfactory  answer.  For  example,  Mark, 
Luke  and  John  do  not  answer  the  questions  that  arise  as 
to  the  possibility  of  the  body  being  taken  from  the  tomb. 
Matthew  alone  tells  us  of  the  placing  of  a  guard  of 
soldiers  at  the  tomb,  and  he  alone  answers  the  very  per- 
tinent question  as  to  what  became  of  this  guard.  After 
telling  of  the  angel  coming  and  rolling  away  the  stone,  he 
says,  "The  watchers  did  quake  and  became  as  dead  men." 
From  Matthew  only  we  learn  that  some  of  the  guard 
came  into  the  city  and  told  the  chief  priests  "all  the  things 
that  were  come  to  pass" ;  that  a  meeting  of  the  sanhedrin 
was  called ;  that,  after  they  had  counselled  together,  they 


494  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

bribed  the  soldiers  to  say  that  the  disciples  had  stolen  the 
body  while  they  slept,  at  the  same  time  assuring  the  sol- 
diers that  they  would  guard  them  against  any  trouble 
that  might  arise  if  the  governor  should  hear  of  it. 

If  this  incident,  recorded  by  Matthew  only,  should  seem 
incredible,  we  only  need  to  remember  that  the  sanhedrists 
and  soldiers  were  equally  interested  in  this  conspiracy. 
For  the  soldiers  to  report  the  truth  to  Pilate,  was  to  put 
themselves  in  the  hands  of  the  executioner,  unless  they 
could  convince  him  of  the  truth  of  this  supernatural 
event.  They  were,  therefore,  interested  in  concealing 
the  whole  matter.  They  were  afraid  to  tell  the  truth  be- 
cause the  governor  might  not  believe  it,  and,  if  he  did  not, 
he  would  put  them  to  death.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Jewish  rulers  were  afraid  that  the  people  would  believe 
the  report  of  the  soldiers,  and  they  knew  that,  if  the  peo- 
ple did  believe,  it  would  result  in  the  utter  overthrow  of 
their  own  power,  and  the  condemnation  of  their  actions 
toward  Christ.  Both  soldiers  and  sanhedrists  were  in 
desperate  straits,  and  were  willing  to  do  anything  to  save 
themselves. 

The  fact  that  this  very  important  incident  is  not  re- 
corded by  the  other  evangelists  indicates  only  that  the  dif- 
ferent accounts  supplement  each  other,  and  it  will  not 
trouble  any  one  who  believes  that  the  writers  were  di- 
rected and  controlled  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  How  far  the 
sanhedrists  believed  in  the  actual  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
we  do  not  know,  and  need  not  inquire.  We  do  know  that 
they  were  interested  in  hushing  and  concealing  the  report 
of  Christ's  resurrection,  and  we  know  also  that  the  fact 
of  his  resurrection  was  fully  accepted  by  a  great  company 
of  disciples  within  two  months,  and  that  this  story  of  his 
body  having  been  stolen  was  only  whispered  about  in 


THE  RESURRECTION  495 

secret,  and  was  never  openly  offered  in  opposition  to  the 
common  belief. 

The  third  appearance  of  our  risen  Lord  was  to  Peter. 
Luke  merely  reports  the  fact,  and  Paul  refers  to  it. 
When,  where  and  in  what  circumstances  the  risen  Jesus 
first  met  the  disciple  who  had  denied  him,  is  not  known, 
except  that  it  occurred  on  that  first  Easter  day.     (Luke 

24:34-) 

The  fourth  appearance  is  mentioned  in  what  Dean  Al- 
f ord  calls  "The  fragmentary  addition  to  Mark ;"  and,  in 
the  gospel  by  Luke,  we  have  the  following  extended  and 
most  interesting  account  of  it.  On  the  afternoon  of  that 
first  Easter  day,  two  of  the  disciples  were  on  their  way 
to  a  village  called  Emmaus,  situated  about  eight  miles 
from  Jerusalem.  As  they  communed  with  one  another 
by  the  way,  talking  of  the  things  that  had  happened,  the 
risen  Jesus  "drew  near  and  went  with  them,  but  their 
eyes  were  holden  so  that  they  should  not  know  him."  As 
he  walked  with  them  and  heard  their  conversation,  he 
said,  "What  communications  are  these  that  ye  have  one 
with  another  as  ye  walk?"  They  were  so  astonished  at 
his  question,  that  they  stood  still,  and,  looking  at  him, 
said,  "Dost  thou  alone  sojourn  in  Jerusalem  and  not  know 
the  things  which  are  come  to  pass  in  these  days?"  Jesus 
said,  "What  things?"  They  replied,  "The  things  con- 
cerning Jesus  of  Nazareth,  who  was  a  prophet  mighty  in 
deed  and  word  before  God  and  all  the  people."  Then, 
having  told  him  how  the  chief  priests  and  rulers  had  con- 
demned and  crucified  Jesus,  they  added,  with  accents  of 
hopeless  sorrow,  "We  hoped  that  it  was  he  who  should 
redeem  Israel."  They  had  once  cherished  this  great  and 
inspiring  hope,  but  the  hope  had  vanished  when  they  saw 
Jesus  crucified,  dead  and  buried.  Having  uttered  this 
sad  lament  over  the  death  of  a  great  hope,  they  proceeded 


496  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALHR  OF  GOD 

with  their  story,  saying,  "Yea,  and  beside  all  this,  it  is 
now  the  third  day  since  these  things  came  to  pass.  More- 
over certain  women  of  our  company  amazed  us,  having 
been  early  at  the  tomb,  and,  when  they  found  not  the 
body,  they  came,  saying,  that  they  had  also  seen  a  vision 
of  angels  who  said  that  he  was  alive.  And  certain  of 
them  that  were  with  us  went  to  the  tomb,  and  found  it 
even  so  as  the  woman  had  said ;  but  him  they  saw  not." 

When  Jesus  had  heard  all  the  words  of  these  sad, 
perplexed,  bewildered  men,  he  said  unto  them,  "O  foolish 
men,  and  slow  of  heart  to  believe  in  all  that  the  prophets 
have  spoken !  Behooved  it  not  the  Christ  to  suffer  these 
things,  and  to  enter  into  his  glory?"  Then  he  proceeded 
to  interpret  the  predictions  concerning  himself,  beginning 
with  Moses  and  going  through  all  the  prophets.  When 
they  drew  near  to  the  village,  Jesus  "made  as  though  he 
would  go  further,"  but  they  constrained  him,  saying, 
"Abide  with  us ;  for  it  is  toward  evening,  and  the  day  is 
now  far  spent."  Jesus  yielded  to  their  constraint,  and 
when  he  sat  down  to  partake  of  the  evening  meal  with 
them,  "He  took  the  bread  and  blessed  it,  and  brake  and 
gave  to  them.  And  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they 
knew  him ;  and  he  vanished  out  of  their  sight.  And  they 
said  one  to  another,  was  not  our  heart  burning  within  us, 
while  he  spoke  to  us  in  the  way,  while  he  opened  to  us 
the  Scriptures?" 

Does  the  fact  that  these  disciples  did  not  at  first  recog- 
nize Jesus  suggest  any  doubt  as  to  his  identity?  Does  it 
not  rather  indicate  the  truthfulness  of  the  narrative?  If 
any  one  had  been  constructing  the  narrative  to  confirm 
the  reports  of  the  resurrection,  and  without  regard  to  the 
truth,  would  he  have  inserted  in  the  narrative  any  such 
question  as  to  identity?  Surely  not.  This  part  of  the 
narrative,  instead  of  suggesting  doubt,  is  adapted  to  con- 


THE  RESURRECTION  497 

firm  the  faith  of  all  who  are  willing  to  accept  any  report 
of  what  is  supernatural.  The  whole  narrative  concerns 
the  supernatural.  There  is  the  supernatural  appearing  of 
the  risen  Jesus ;  the  supernatural  influence  on  the  eyes 
of  the  disciples,  so  that  they  could  not  see,  and  then  the 
supernatural  vanishing  out  of  their  sight  when  he  became 
known  to  them  in  the  breaking  of  bread.  The  whole  nar- 
rative has  on  it  the  stamp  of  truthfulness,  but  it  describes 
a  supernatural  event. 

After  the  two  disciples  had  recognized  Jesus,  and  he 
had  vanished  out  of  their  sight,  they  rose  from  the  table 
at  Emmaus  and  hastened  back  to  Jerusalem.  On  their 
way  to  Emmaus  they  had  been  depressed  by  the  death  of 
a  great  hope ;  but,  on  their  return  to  Jerusalem,  their 
hearts  are  thrilled  by  the  birth  of  a  hope  infinitely  nobler 
and  more  inspiring.  When  they  reach  the  city  they  find 
the  eleven  and  other  disciples  gathered  together,  and,  be- 
fore they  can  tell  their  own  glad  story,  they  hear  the  rap- 
turous exclamation,  "The  Lord  is  risen  indeed  and  hath 
appeared  unto  Simon."  Then  they  tell  their  own  strange 
and  happy  experience  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  and  how 
Jesus  was  known  unto  them  in  the  breaking  of  bread. 

Both  Luke  and  John  tell  of  another  most  impressive 
appearance  of  the  risen  Jesus  on  that  first  ever-mem- 
orable Easter  day.  It  took  place  in  Jerusalem  in  a  room 
where  the  disciples  were  assembled  with  closed  doors 
for  fear  of  the  Jews.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  it 
occurred  in  the  assembly  room  where  the  two  disciples, 
on  their  return  from  Emmaus,  found  the  eleven.  In 
order  to  harmonize  Luke  24 :  33  with  John  20 :  24,  and 
reckon  Luke  24 :  33-43  and  John  20 :  19-25,  as  independent 
reports  of  the  same  events,  we  only  need  to  assume  that 
Thomas  had  gone  out  before  the  two  disciples  had  com- 
pleted the  account  of  their  experiences  at  Emmaus.    Or, 


498  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

we  might  assume  that  Luke  spoke  of  the  eleven  as  of  the 
whole  number  of  disciples,  not  specifying  that  one  of  the 
eleven  was  absent.  Neither  of  these  assumptions  does 
any  violence  to  the  inspired  record.  Following,  then,  the 
order  of  events  indicated  by  Luke,  we  see  the  disciples 
assembled  with  closed  doors,  listening  to  the  different  ac- 
counts of  those  who  had  seen  their  risen  Lord,  when  sud- 
denly Jesus,  "stood  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  saith  unto 
them.  Peace  be  unto  you."  This  sudden  appearance  of 
the  risen  Saviour,  when  the  doors  were  shut,  terrified  the 
disciples,  and  they  thought  him  a  spirit.  All  the  reports 
that  had  come  to  them  had  not  prepared  them  for  looking 
calmly  and  gladly  on  the  glorified  body  of  their  Master. 
They  had  often  regarded  him  with  reverential  awe  before 
his  crucifixion,  but  his  presence  now  was  more  than  awe- 
inspiring.  Seeing  their  fear,  Jesus  said,  "Why  are  ye 
troubled?  And  wherefore  do  reasonings  arise  in  your 
hearts?  See  my  hands  and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself; 
handle  me  and  see,  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones 
as  ye  behold  me  having." 

When  he  had  shown  them  his  pierced  hands  and  feet, 
and  they  were  filled  with  a  great  joy  that  was  mingled 
with  wonder  and  doubt,  he  said  unto  them,  "Have  ye 
here  anything  to  eat  ?  and  they  gave  him  a  piece  of  broiled 
fish,  and  he  took  it  and  did  eat  before  them."  Then  he 
said  again,  "Peace  be  unto  you.  As  the  Father  has  sent 
me  into  the  world,  even  so  send  I  you.  And,  when  he  had 
said  this,  he  breathed  on  them,  and  saith  unto  them,  Re- 
ceive ye  the  Holy  Ghost,  whosesoever  sins  ye  forgive,  they 
are  forgiven  unto  them ;  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they 
are  retained." 

It  is  possible  that  the  instructions  spoken  of,  Luke  24: 
44-49,  may  have  been  given  at  this  time,  and  in  this  con- 
nection;  but  it  seems  more  probable  that  the  evangelist 


THE  RESURRECTION  499 

has  gathered  into  this  brief  space  a  summary  of  what  the 
risen  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples  at  different  times. 

This  is  all  we  know  of  our  Lord's  appearance  on  that 
first  eventful  resurrection  day.  He  had  appeared  to  Mary 
Magdalene,  to  the  other  women,  to  Peter,  to  the  two  dis- 
ciples and  in  the  evening  to  the  ten  in  the  room  at  Jerusa- 
lem. The  darkness  of  despair  had  been  succeeded  by  the 
dawn  of  a  great  hope;  but  it  required  time  in  order  to 
any  adequate  realization  of  the  great  fact.  Never  before 
had  one  been  raised  from  the  dead  to  an  immortal  life, 
so  that  he  could  appear  to  men  in  this  world.  Lazarus, 
Jairus'  daughter,  the  son  of  the  widow  of  Nain,  had  been 
raised  from  the  dead  to  mortal  life,  but  here  was  some- 
thing different.  In  their  resurrection  death  was  only 
baffled,  and  his  victory  delayed,  but  here  death  is  con- 
quered. It  is  not  strange  that  it  required  more  than  a  few 
hours  for  the  disciples  to  realize  this  great  fact  and  grasp 
its  meaning.  They  were  glad,  but  they  were  also  bewil- 
dered and  perplexed.  They  could  say,  "The  Lord  is 
risen  indeed,"  but  they  could  not  comprehend  the  full 
meaning  and  mighty  import  of  their  own  words.  The 
Lord  had  breathed  on  them ;  he  had  bestowed  on  them 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  he  had  given  them  his  bene- 
diction of  peace,  but  these  gifts  were  to  become  efficacious 
in  the  future. 

Thomas  was  not  present  when  Jesus  appeared  to  the 
disciples  on  the  evening  of  Easter  day.  He  was  a  sincere 
man,  but  was  melancholy,  despondent,  and  inclined  to 
doubt,  and,  when  the  other  disciples  said  to  him,  "We 
have  seen  the  Lord,"  he  said,  "Except  I  shall  see  in  his 
hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put  my  hand  into  his 
side,  I  will  not  believe."  He  was  not  willing  to  accept 
the  testimony  of  others,  however,  convincing  and  over- 
whelming it  might  be.     He  must,  with  his  own  sense  of 


500  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

sight  and  touch  confirm  his  faith  if  he  is  to  beUeve.  His 
conditions  were  unreasonable.  He  counted  as  worthless 
the  testimony  of  other  men  who  were  as  capable  and 
truthful  as  himself.  He  maintained  this  position  of  un- 
belief for  a  week  until  the  disciples  were  again  assembled 
with  closed  doors,  when  Jesus  again  stood  in  the  midst 
and  said,  "Peace  be  unto  you."  Then  Jesus  said  to 
Thomas,  "Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  see  my  hands; 
and  reach  hither  thy  hand,  and  put  it  into  my  side,  and 
be  not  faithless,  but  believing."  Thomas  was  convinced 
and  exclaimed,  "My  Lord  and  my  God !"  Jesus  said  to 
him,  "Because  thou  hast  seen,  thou  hast  believed ;  blessed 
are  they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed." 

The  skepticism  of  Thomas  was  overcome  in  such  a  way 
as  to  confirm  the  faith  of  others,  but  it  was  not  com- 
mended. It  had  in  it  an  element  of  honesty;  but  it  was 
made  up  largely  of  self-centered  pride  and  egotism.  He 
excluded  all  evidence  except  the  particular  kind  he  saw 
fit  to  weigh  and  consider,  and  that  was  the  evidence  of 
his  own  senses.  Credulity  and  skepticism  frequently  go 
hand  in  hand,  and,  no  doubt,  Thomas  could  have  been  de- 
luded and  deceived  more  easily  than  the  other  disciples, 
therefore,  our  Lord  rebuked  him,  as  he  said,  "Blessed  are 
they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed." 

On  the  morning  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  an  angel 
had  directed  the  women  to  go  quickly  and  tell  the  disciples 
that  their  risen  Lord  would  go  before  them  into  Galilee 
and  that  they  should  see  him  there.  Jesus  also  said  to  the 
women.  "Go  tell  my  brethren  that  they  depart  into  Gali- 
lee, and  there  shall  they  see  me."  After  his  appearance 
to  the  eleven  in  Jerusalem  they  seem  to  have  obeyed  this 
command,  for  we  next  find  seven  of  them  by  the  sea  of 
Tiberius,  in  Galilee.  While  they  waited  for  the  fulfill- 
ment of  their  Master's  promise  it  was  necessary  for  them 


THE  RESURRECTION  501 

to  do  something  in  order  to  provide  an  honest  means  of 
support ;  and  they  resumed  for  a  time  their  former  avo- 
cation as  fishermen. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  Peter  took  his  place  as  leader,  and, 
with  James,  John,  Thomas,  Nathanael  and  two  other  dis- 
ciples, spent  a  whole  night  on  the  lake  without  taking 
anything.  At  daybreak,  when  they  were  about  two  hun- 
dred cubits  from  the  shore,  Jesus  appeared  on  the  beach, 
and,  calling  to  them,  said,  "Children,  have  ye  aught  to 
eat?"  The  disciples  did  not  recognize  their  risen  Lord 
and  answered,  "No."  He  then  said  to  them,  "Cast  the 
net  on  the  right  side  of  the  boat,  and  ye  shall  find."  They 
obeyed,  and  their  net  enclosed  so  many  fish  that  they 
were  not  able  to  draw  it  into  the  boat.  John  was  the  first 
to  recognize  his  Master,  and  he  said  to  Peter,  "It  is  the 
Lord."  No  time  was  needed  for  deliberation.  The  en- 
thusiastic, impatient,  impetuous  Peter  could  not  wait  to 
bring  the  boat  and  the  net  to  the  land,  but,  girding  his  coat 
about  him,  he  cast  himself  into  the  sea  and  swam  ashore. 
The  other  disciples  followed  in  the  boat,  dragging  the 
net.  When  they  reached  the  shore  they  saw  a  fire  of  coals 
with  fish  laid  thereon  and  bread ;  and,  when  Jesus  said, 
"Bring  of  the  fish  which  ye  have  now  taken,"  Peter  went 
to  the  assistance  of  the  other  disciples  and  drew  the  net, 
containing  "one  hundred  and  fifty  and  three  great  fishes," 
unbroken  to  land.  Then  Jesus  said  to  the  disciples, 
"Come,  break  your  fast."  The  disciples  were  so  re- 
strained by  reverential  awe  that  they  did  not  dare  to  ask 
their  Master  anything  concerning  himself,  "knowing  that 
it  was  the  Lord,"  but  Jesus,  taking  the  bread  and  the  fish, 
gave  them  to  the  disciples. 

After  they  had  breakfasted,  Jesus  said  to  Simon  Peter, 
"Simon,  son  of  John,  lovest  thou  me  more  than  these? 
In  this  question  Jesus  used  the  stronger  Greek  word  that 


502  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

best  expressed  the  love  of  God;  but  Peter,  in  his  reply, 
not  only  chose  a  different  and  weaker  word,  but  left  out 
the  "more  than  these,"  saying  humbly,  "Yea,  Lord ;  thou 
knowest  that  I  love  thee."  Jesus  said  in  reply,  "Feed  my 
lambs."  He  then  addressed  Peter  again,  saying,  "Simon, 
son  of  John,  Lovest  thou  me?"  He  left  out  the  compari- 
son with  others,  that  was  adapted  to  remind  Peter  of  his 
former  boastfulness ;  Peter  again  humbly  answered, 
"Yea,  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee."  Jesus  then 
replied,  "Tend,  (or  shepherd)  my  sheep."  Then  he  said 
to  Peter  the  third  time,  "Simon,  son  of  John,  lovest  thou 
me?"  This  time  Jesus  substituted  the  weaker  word  that 
Peter  had  used,  but  his  asking  the  third  time  deeply 
grieved  Peter,  for  it  reminded  him  so  vividly  of  his  thrice 
repeated  denial,  and  he  exclaimed,  "Lord,  thou  knowest 
all  things ;  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee."  Again  Jesus 
said,  "Feed  my  sheep."  After  this  he  spoke  to  Peter 
about  the  trials  through  which  he  would  be  called  to  pass, 
and  added,  "Follow  me." 

All  Peter's  sad  experience  had  not  perfected  his  hu- 
mility ;  for,  while  Jesus  was  talking  with  him  about  his 
own  future  and  preparing  him  to  meet  it,  Peter  caught 
sight  of  John,  and  interrupted,  saying,  "Lord,  and  what 
shall  this  man  do?"  We  do  not  know  the  motive  of  Peter 
in  asking  the  question.  He  may  have  been  moved  by  af- 
fection for  John,  or  by  a  slight  twinge  of  jealousy,  or  by 
mere  curiosity;  but,  whatsoever  his  motive  may  have 
been,  Jesus  rebuked  him,  saying,  "If  I  will  that  he  tarry 
till  I  come,  what  is  that  to  thee?    Follow  thou  me." 

This  seventh  appearance  of  our  Lord  and  his  conver- 
sation with  Peter  are  so  related  by  John  that  there  can  be 
no  possible  room  for  the  thought  that  the  disciples  might 
have  been  deluded  and  deceived.  It  excludes  all  pos- 
sibility of  any  such  theory,  and  the  reader  is  compelled  to 


THE  RESURRECTION  503 

either  accept  the  facts  as  absolutely  true,  or  to  convict 
the  disciples  and  the  whole  early  Christian  church  of  a 
deliberate  conspiracy  to  deceive.  No  sane  man  can  be- 
lieve that  the  disciples  were  so  deluded  that  they  could 
imagine  all  this  and  believe  it  to  be  true  if  it  were  not 
true,  and  the  theory  of  gradual  legendary  growth  is  im- 
possible on  account  of  lack  of  time  between  the  dates  of 
the  events  and  the  writing  of  this  gospel. 

The  eighth  recorded  appearance  of  the  risen  Jesus 
took  place  on  a  mountain  in  Galilee.  No  hint  is  given  as 
to  what  particular  mountain  was  chosen,  but  it  was  prob- 
ably the  Mount  of  Beatitudes,  or  the  Mount  of  Trans- 
figuration, or  some  other  well  known  resort  of  our  Lord 
and  his  disciples.  This,  no  doubt,  was  the  appearance 
mentioned  by  Paul,  ist  Cor.  15:6,  when  he  was  seen  by 
more  than  five  hundred  brethren  at  once.  This  appear- 
ance was  by  special  appointment  and  it  was  the  time  when 
Jesus  first  issued  his  great  commission.  Nevertheless,  we 
have  very  little  information  concerning  this  meeting. 
Matthew  says,  "The  eleven  disciples  went  into  Galilee, 
unto  the  mountain  where  Jesus  had  appointed  them. 
And  when  they  saw  him  they  worshipped  him,  but  some 
doubted."  If,  as  we  have  abundant  reason  for  believing, 
not  less  than  five  hundred  disciples  were  present  with  the 
eleven,  none  of  the  eleven  need  be  included  amongst  the 
doubters. 

While  the  record  of  this  meeting  is  very  brief,  there  is 
good  reason  for  believing  that  Jesus  talked  at  length  with 
his  disciples  about  the  great  commission  that  he  was  is- 
suing. He  had  appointed  the  meeting  for  the  purpose  and 
had  repeatedly  directed  his  disciples  to  meet  him  in  that 
mountain.  Matthew  puts  on  record  the  words  of  the 
commission,  when  he  declares  that  Jesus  said  to  the  dis- 
ciples, "All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven. 


504  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

and  on  earth.  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of 
the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  teaching  them  to  observe 
all  things  whatsoever  I  command  you ;  and  lo,  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

It  would  have  been  presumptuous  folly  for  the  Roman 
emperor  to  have  assembled  his  army  and  navy  and  given 
them  any  such  commission  for  world  wide  conquest.  It 
was  a  commission  to  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations  and 
to  bring  the  individuals  that  composed  these  nations  into 
such  complete  subjection  that  they  would  do  whatsoever 
Jesus  commanded  them.  Nevertheless  these  words  were 
spoken  by  one  who  seemed  to  have  neither  army  nor  navy 
nor  material  resources  of  any  kind.  This  commission 
was  given  to  men,  none  of  whom  had  ever  been  further 
than  the  Pillars  of  Hercules;  not  one  of  whom  had  any 
accurate  knowledge  of  even  the  geographical  extent  of 
the  world  or  ever  dreamed  that  the  world  in  which  he  lived 
was  a  sphere.  This  commission  was  given  to  men  who 
had  no  experience  as  diplomats  or  leaders  of  men.  How 
could  they  hope  to  succeed?  Only  on  one  condition, 
namely,  that  he  who  commissioned  them  was  indeed 
clothed  with  all  authority  in  heaven  and  upon  earth  and 
that  he  could  and  would  fulfill  his  promise  to  be  with 
them  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 

We,  who  live  nearly  two  thousand  years  after  this  com- 
mission was  given,  see  marvelous  evidences  of  its  prog- 
ress toward  fulfillment.  That  little  company  and  their 
successors  have  gone  forth  from  that  mountain  in  Gali- 
lee and  have  made  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them 
in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  They  have  brought  men  of  every  race  and  nation 
into  loving  subjection  to  King  Jesus.  The  history  of 
the  Christian  church  is  the  convincing  proof  of  the  truth- 


THE  RESURRECTION  505 

fulness  of  Jesus'  words  when  he  said,  "All  authority  hath 
been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth."  Millions  of 
Christians  of  succeeding  generations  have  testified  and 
will  testify  that  Jesus  has  fulfilled  to  them  his  promise 
that  he  would  be  with  his  disciples  as  they  sought  to  carry 
out  his  great  commission.  Millions  of  men  and  women 
in  this  generation,  as  they  read  the  history  of  the  Christian 
church  and  look  out  over  the  world,  can  sing, 

"Oh  where  are  kings  and  empires  now, 

Of  old  that  went  and  came? 
But,  Lord,  thy  Church  is  praying  yet, 
A  thousand  years  the  same." 

The  empire  of  Tiberius  has  crumbled  and  decayed,  but 
the  forces  sent  out  by  the  risen  Jesus  are  moving  on,  con- 
quering the  hearts  of  men,  and  establishing  a  world  wide 
and  everlasting  kingdom. 

Of  the  ninth  appearance  of  Jesus  after  his  resurrection, 
we  have  no  knowledge  except  the  incidental  statement  of 
the  apostle  Paul,  who  tells  of  the  death,  burial  and  resur- 
rection of  Jesus,  and  of  his  appearing  to  Cephas,  to  the 
twelve,  and  to  the  more  than  five  hundred  brethren,  ad- 
ding, "Then  he  appeared  unto  James,  then  to  all  the  apos- 
tles; and  last  of  all,  as  unto  one  born  out  of  due  time, 
he  appeared  to  me  also."  There  are  traditions  concerning 
this  appearance  of  Jesus  to  James,  and  there  is  one  story 
preserved  in  the  "Gospel  to  the  Hebrews,"  but  we  have 
no  information  that  is  reliable. 

Our  knowledge  of  our  risen  Lord's  last  appearance  is 
derived  from  the  gospel  by  Luke,  from  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  and  from  the  "fragmentary  supplement"  to  the 
gospel  by  Mark.  Comparing  and  combining  these  sources 
of  information  we  learn  that  this  last  appearance  of  QUIT 


5o6  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

Lord  to  his  disciples  was  at  Jerusalem  on  the  fortieth  day 
after  his  resurrection.  At  this  time  Jesus  reminded  his 
disciples  that  they  were  to  be  his  witnesses  at  Jerusalem, 
in  Judea,  in  Samaria  and  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth.  In  order  that  they  might  be  fitted  and  equipped  to 
act  as  his  true  representatives  in  the  world  he  charged 
them  to  tarry  at  Jerusalem  until  they  should  be  clothed 
with  power  from  on  high.  He  reminded  them  of  the 
promise  of  the  Father,  that  he  had  already  made,  and 
assured  them  that  they  should  be  "baptized  in  the  Holy 
Spirit  not  many  days  hence." 

The  disciples  felt  that  they  were  facing  another  crisis 
in  their  history,  and,  not  being  yet  able  to  understand 
their  Master's  teachings  concerning  his  kingdom,  they 
said  to  him,  "Lord  dost  thou  at  this  time  restore  the  king- 
dom to  Israel?"  To  this  question  he  replied,  "It  is  not 
for  you  to  know  the  times  or  the  seasons  which  the  Father 
hath  set  within  his  own  authority."  Then  "he  led  them 
out  until  they  were  over  against  Bethany,  and  he  lifted 
up  his  hands  and  blessed  them ;  and  it  came  to  pass  that 
while  he  blessed  them  he  parted  from  them,  and  was  car- 
ried up  into  heaven,"  and  a  cloud  received  him  out  of 
their  sight." 

Jesus  left  his  disciples,  not  through  the  tomb,  but 
through  the  portals  of  the  skies.  They  could  not  follow 
him,  but  they  continued  to  look  upward,  seeking  to  pierce 
the  clouds  with  their  earthly  vision  until  two  men  in  white 
apparel  stood  by  them  and  said,  "Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why 
stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  This  Jesus  who  was  re- 
ceived up  from  you  into  heaven  shall  so  come  in  like  man- 
ner as  ye  have  beheld  him  go  into  heaven."  When  the 
disciples  heard  this  message  they  worshipped  their  as- 
cended Lord  and  returned  to  Jerusalem  with  great  joy 
and  were  continually  in  the  temple,  blessing  God. 


THE  RESURRECTION  507 

Love's  redeeming  work  is  done.  The  seed  of  the  wom- 
an has  bruised  the  head  of  the  serpent.  What  the  law 
could  not  do  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God, 
sending  his  own  Son,  has  accomplished.  In  the  fullness 
of  time  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  became  man  by  taking  to 
himself  a  true  body  and  a  reasonable  soul ;  he  was  born 
of  the  virgin  Mary,  suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,  was 
crucified,  dead  and  buried,  rose  again  the  third  day,  as- 
cended on  high  leading  captivity  captive,  and,  now,  seated 
at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  he  sends  forth  his  as- 
cension gifts  and  fulfills  all  his  promises.  While  the 
heavenly  temple  reechoes  the  shout, 

"Lift  up  your  heads,  O  ye  gates ; 
And  be  ye  lifted  up,  ye  everlasting  doors; 
And  the  King  of  glory  will  come  in," 

Jesus  enters  and  sits  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Majesty  on  high. 

Enthroned  in  glory,  Jesus  did  not  forget  his  lonely, 
needy  disciples  whom  he  had  left  as  his  witnesses  in  this 
world.  Ten  days  after  his  ascension,  at  Pentecost,  when 
the  disciples  were  tarrying  and  praying  in  Jerusalem,  ac- 
cording to  his  direction,  his  promise  and  the  prophecy  of 
Joel  were  fulfilled.  The  Holy  Spirit  came  in  great  power, 
and  thenceforth,  to  the  end  of  the  world,  every  disciple 
may  have  with  him  his  risen,  reigning.  Almighty  Lord 
in  the  person  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Our  great  high  priest 
has  entered  within  the  veil,  and  his  disciples  on  this  earth 
can  sing, 

"Where   high   the   heavenly   temple    stands, 
The  house  of  God  not  made  with  hands, 
A  great  High  Priest  our  nature  wears. 
The  Guardian  of  mankind  appears," 


5o8  JESUS  CHRIST,  THE  REVEALER  OF  GOD 

The  risen  Saviour  is  in  heaven,  making  intercession 
for  his  people;  he  is  their  advocate  at  God's  right 
hand.  He  is  also  present  with  every  disciple  in  the  per- 
son oft  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Comforter.  Henceforth  his 
dwelling  is  not  only  in  heaven,  but  in  every  believing, 
humble,  contrite  heart.  He  is  our  living,  loving  om- 
nipotent Friend,  and  we  sing, 

"All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name, 

Let  angels  prostrate  fall, 
Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem. 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all." 

In  the  life  of  Jesus  Christ  we  see  the  great  mystery  of 
Godliness,  God  manifest  in  flesh.  He  was  in  the  begin- 
ning with  God;  he  was  manifested  in  the  flesh,  justified 
in  the  Spirit,  seen  of  angels,  believed  on  in  the  world, 
received  up  into  glory.  He  is  the  eternal  Son  of  God; 
he  became  man  that  he  might  redeem  his  people  and  save 
a  lost  world.  He  is  the  Unique  Revealer  of  God.  He 
is  the  only  mediator  between  God  and  man ;  the  unique 
reconciler  of  man  to  his  fellow  man.  He  was  dead  and 
is  alive  and  lives  forevermore.  He  is  the  resurrection 
and  the  life.  To  everyone  that  believeth  he  is  precious. 
Let  every  knee  bow  to  him,  and  let  the  whole  earth  be 
filled  with  his  glory. 

Amen  and  Amen. 


ALPHABETICAL  INDEX 


Abraham,  seed  of,  15-43;    161, 

280-282 
Adam,  48 

Advent,  second,  352 
Aenon,  near  Salim,  81-83 
Agony  in  the  Garden,  441-444 
Ahab,  43-47 
Ajalon,  35 
Alphaeus,  113 
Andrew,  disciple,  47,   139 
Angels,  advent  song,  13 
Annas,  42 ;   Jesus  before,  450 
Antonia,  fortress  of,  445 
Annunciation,  20,  41 
Apochryphal,  31 
Archelaus,  28 
Ascension  of  Christ,  506 
Augustine,  271 

Babylon,  161 

Balaam,  16 

Baptist,  John,  the  birth  of,  20; 

preaching,  40-44 ;    arrest,  47 ; 

at  Aenon,  81-83;  disciples  of, 

121 ;    message  from,  159-161 
Bartholomew,  139 
Beelzebub,    Jesus    accused    of 

being  in  league  with,  297 
Bethany,   266;    Lazarus  raised 

from  the  dead,  338-345;    the 

family  at,  372,  373,  377 
Bethlehem,  13,  14 
Bethphage,  387 
Bethsaida,  59,  99,  210,  B.  Julius, 

229 
Bethesda,  healing  a  sick  man, 

124 
Betrayal,  446 
Bible,   14 
Blasphemy,   Jesus  accused  of, 

316,  453 
Blind    man    healed,    169;     one 

born  blind,   healed,   283-295 ; 

blind    man    at    Jericho,    and 

lesson,  346-371 
Boy,  Jewish,  at  twelve,  31 


Bread  of  Heaven,  214-220 

Caesar,  206,  398 
Caesarea,  Philippi,  231 
Caiaphas,  42;   idea  of  vicarious 

sacrifice,      344,     345;       high 

priesthood  described,  449 
Cain,  371 

Calvary,    139,  218,  472 
Cana,  59,  99,  105 
Capernaum,    61;     identity,   68; 

Cana     to     Capernaum,     70; 

nobleman,  94,  99,  105,  151 
Carpenter,  Jesus,  32 
Centurion,  151-154;   480 
Chorazin,   259 
Cleopas,  wife  of,  475 
Comforter,  the,  434 
Compassion,  Jesus',    112;    and 

faith,  169,  205 
Cross,  Jesus  on  the,  center  of 

attraction,  384 

Dalmanutha,  228 

Daniel,  17,  161 

David,  16,  161 

Dead  Sea,  67 

Dean  Stanley,  378 

Decapolis,  224 

Demoniacal  possession,  100-112 

Demons,  exorcising,  100;    188- 

190 
Divorce  discussed,  354,  etc. 

Eden,  14 

Edersheim,  123,  450 

Egypt,  flight  into,  26,  27 

Egyptians,  16 

Elijah,    19,  43,   224,  239,  245 

Elizabeth,  19,  20 

Endor,  157 

Ephraim,  338;  346 

Eternal  Life,  128;    what  it  is, 

438 
Euphrates,  16 


509 


5X0 


INDEX 


Faith,   152,   169,   186,  208,  214, 

223,  243 
Farrar,  123,  274,  422 
Feeding    five    thousand,     198; 

four  thousand,  227 
Fig  tree  that  withered,  388 
Fishers  of  Men,  108-109 
Forgiving  sins,   115 
Fra  Angelico,  33 

Gabriel,  19 

Gadarenes,  188 

Gahlee,  21,  41,  110-114;    303 

Galonitas,  41 

Gennesaret,  68,  107,  141,  212 

Gergesenes,  188 

Gethsemane,  139,  218,  420,  442, 

471 
Gilboa,  158 
Greece,  224 
Greeks,  see  Jesus,  383 
Greswell,  in 
Golgotha,  472 

Ha  fed,  231 

Hermon,  231,  237 

Herod  Antipas,  41,  47,  105,  136, 

199-201;    that  fox,  320;    338, 

353.  465 
Herod    the   Great.   25,   26,  28; 

compared  with  Pharoah,  29 
Herod   Philip,   41 
Herodias,  47,    199-201 
Herodians,     136;      tribute     to 

Csesar,  398-399 
Holy    Spirit,    at    Baptism    of 

Jesus,  52 
Hypocrites,  212 

Tdumea,  136 

Isaiah,    17;    prophecy   of,   42; 

94,  III,  212 
Israel,  24 
Italy,  224 

Jabin,  231,  262 

Jacob,  35;  well,  84 

Jairus,    123;    raising   daughter 

of,  166-168 
James,  139 


Jericho,  Herod's  death  at,  28, 
346;  Jesus  entertained  by 
Zaccheus,  364-367 

Jerusalem,  on  the  way  to,  245- 
246 

Jesus  Christ :  O.  T.  prophecies 
of  birth,  15-17;  genealogy 
of,  18;  N.  T.  record  of  birth, 
18-21;  infancy  of,  22-29; 
childhood  of,  31-34;  knowl- 
edge of  His  divinity,  33 ; 
life  at  Nazareth,  35-38;  bap- 
tism of,  45-47;  temptation 
of,  48-54;  first  disciples,  55- 
60;  marriage  feast  and  first 
miracle,  62-66;  in  Caper- 
naum, 66-69;  first  official 
visit  to  Jerusalem  and  cleans- 
ing the  temple,  70-74 ;  con- 
versation with  Nicodemus, 
75-79;  his  disciples  baptize, 
81-83;  in  Samaria  and  the 
Samaritans,  83-90;  rejected 
at  Nazareth,  91-98;  first  Sab- 
bath in  Capernaum,  99-103; 
by  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  105- 
109;  first  circuit  of  Galilee, 
110-113;  forgiving  sin  and 
healing  paralytic,  114-117; 
a  feast  at  Jerusalem  and 
pool  of  Bethesda,  123-129; 
claims  equality  with  God, 
129;  controversy  concerning 
the  Sabbath,  130-136:  organ- 
izing His  work  and  declaring 
principles  of  His  kingdom, 
137-150;  healing  centurion's 
servant,  151-154;  message 
from  John  the  Baptist  and 
annointing,  159-195 ;  teach- 
ing and  healing  in  Galilee, 
166-170;  teaching  by  par- 
ables, 171-181 ;  mother  and 
brethren  of,  184-187;  stilling 
tempest  and  healing  demon- 
iac, 188-191 ;  sending  forth 
the  twelve,  192-198;  murder 
of  John  the  Baptist  and  feed- 
ing the  five  thousand,  198- 
205 ;  Jesus  walks  on  the  sea, 


INDEX 


511 


206-209 ;  Jesus'  popularity- 
begins  to  decline,  210-218; 
Jesus  and  Syrophoenician 
woman,  219-223  ;  from  Phoe- 
nicia through  Decapolis,  224- 
277;  great  confession,  228- 
234;  the  transfiguration,  235- 
239;  healing  demoniac  boy, 
240-244 ;  closing  Galilean 
ministry,  245-250;  on  the 
way  to  Jerusalem,  251-256; 
mission  of  the  seventy,  the 
good  Samaritan  and  Bethany, 
257-265 ;  at  the  feast  of 
tabernacles,  266-270 ;  woman 
accused  of  adultery,  271-274; 
teaching  in  the  temple,  275- 
282 ;  healing  the  man  born 
blind,  283-295  ;  discourse  con- 
cerning blasphemy,  290-302 ; 
breakfast  in  the  Pharisee's 
house,  303-313;  at  feast  of 
the  dedication,  314-316;  from 
feast  of  dedication  to  raising 
of  Lazarus,  317-337;  raising 
of  Lazarus  and  departure  to 
Ephraim,  338-345  ;  from  rais- 
ing of  Lazarus  to  Jericho, 
346-363 ;  at  Jericho,  364-371 ; 
in  Bethany,  372-376;  first  day 
of  passion  week,  377-385 ; 
Monday  of  passion  week, 
386-396;  Tuesday  of  passion 
week,  397-417;  Wednesday 
of  passion  week,  418-420 ;  last 
passover,  421-440;  agony  in 
the  garden,  441-444;  the  ar- 
rest, 445-448 ;  before  the  high 
priest  and  sanhedrin,  449- 
454;  before  Pilate,  455-469; 
the  crucifixion,  470-484;  the 
resurrection,  485-508 

Jewish  history,  41 ;  feasts,  no; 
question,  286 

John,  called  to  discipleship,  57, 
139 

John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus 
compared,  82 

Jonah,  270;    302 

Jordan,  224,  317 


Joseph,  20,  25;  of  Arimathea, 
486 

Josephus,  25,  69 

Joy  and  sorrow,  make  man  bet- 
ter or  worse,  299-300 

Judas,  Iscariot,  139;  a  devil, 
216;  objects  to  waste  of 
ointment  and  arranges  to  be- 
tray His  Master,  374-376; 
418,  425 

Jude,  139 

Judean  shepherds,  13 

Judgment,  vision  of,  415-417 

Kersa,  188 

Kidron,  408;   441,  446 

King,  proclaims,  204 

Kingdom  of  God  and  of  Satan, 
102,  104;  Kingdom  of  God 
recognized  by  centurion,  151- 
154;   greatest  in,  246-247 

Lamb  of  God,  Jesus  the,  56,  69 

Lawyer,  261-263 

Lazarus,  338-335 

Lepers,   112;    ten,  347 

Levi,  sons  of,  43 

Levites,  43 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  54,  285 

Lord's  prayer,  284 

Lord's    Supper,    institution    of, 

427-428 
Love,  becomes  compassion,  113 

Machaeris,  47 

Magadan,  228 

Maji,  25 

Malchus,  448 

Marriage  at  Cana,  62,  63 ;  In- 
stitution, 65-66 

Mary,  mother  of  Jesus,  18,  24, 
251 ;  commended  to  the  be- 
loved disciple,  475 

Mary,  sister  of  Martha,  335- 
338;  anoints  Jesus,  373,  374; 
Magdalene,  475,  487,  488 

Martha,  251,  264,  338,  335 

Matthew,  called  to  discipleship, 
1 18-122,  139 

Messiah,  Jews  expected,  142; 
claims  to  be,  231 


512 


IND^X 


Messianic  hope  of  Samaritans, 

84 

Micah 

Miracles,  63,  64;  an  acted  par- 
able, 116-117 

Moses,  law  of,  24,  31,  39;  ser- 
pent in  wilderness,  78,  142, 
206,  239;  on  mount  of  trans- 
figuration, 245 

Mountains,  Ebel  and  Gerazim, 
81 ;  Carmel,  35 ;  of  beati- 
tudes, 137;  Sinai,  141;  of 
Transfiguration,  236;  of 
Olives,  Z77\  Jesus  hailed  as 
king  on  Mount  of  Olives, 
379;    of  Olives,  409,  418 

Nahum,  27 

Nathanael,  139 

Nain,  raising  young  man,  155- 

158 
Nazareth,   20,    21 ;     description 

of,   35-37;    91-98 
New  birth,  76-77 
Nicodemus,   kind   of   man,   75, 

76;    compared  with  Andrew 

and  Peter,  88,  486 
Nineveh,  302 

Old  and  New  Testament  dis- 
pensations, 122 

Olshausen,   iii 

Palestine,  16 

Passover,  32,  123 ;  description 
of,  421 ;    Last,  421-440 

Paneas,  41 

Parable,  two  debtors,  163-1.64; 
first  teaching  by,  171-181 ; 
reasons  for,  172-173;  Jewish 
parables,  173-174;  first  group 
analyzed.  174-151 ;  of  a  rich 
man,  308;  good  Samaritan, 
of  the  prodigal,  the  excuses, 
etc.,  318,  etc.;  the  unfaithful 
steward,  the  rich  man  and 
Lazarus.  332,  etc. ;  of  the 
householder,  359;  two  sons, 
390;  of  the  husbandman, 
392 ;  talents,  ten  virgins,  etc., 
412-415 


Perea,  83,  295,  297,  303,  338 

Peter,  58,  107;  called  the  rock, 
231-234;  walking  on  the  sea, 
denial  of  the  Master,  429, 
etc. 

Priests  and  Levites,  262 

Pharisees,  accuse  Jesus  of 
blasphemy,  115;  object  to 
Jesus  mingling  with  sinners, 
120-121,  143;  hand  washing, 
212;  recognized  religious 
teachers,  292 ;  rebuked,  305- 
306;  characteristics  of,  307, 
404-406;  ask  for  guard  at 
tomb  of  Jesus,  487 

Philip,  becomes  disciple,  59, 
139..  433 

Phoenicia 

Pontius  Pilate,  42;  slaying 
Galileans,  310,  382;  sketch 
of.  455,  etc. ;  trial  of  Jesus, 
455-469;  his  wife,  464; 
washes  his  hands,  468;  Pre- 
torium,  470;  Pharisees  ask 
for  guard  at  tomb  of  Jesus, 
487 

Prayer,  Jesus  intercessory,  438- 
440 

Presentation  in  Temple,  24 

Relationship  to  Jesus,   183-185 
Religion,    importance    of,    255- 

256 
Religious  teachers,  test  of,  295 
Resurrection    of    Christ,    301 ; 

testimony  in  regard  to,  485- 

S08 
Robertson.  F.  V/.,  79 
Roman    government,    42,    152- 

153 

Sabbath  day,  Jesus  accused  of 
breaking.  125-128;  ecclesias- 
tical battlefield,  130-136; 
plucking  ears  of  corn,  131 ; 
healing  in  the  synagogue, 
134;  healing  on  the,  320-322 
Sadducean  sensuality,  42,  228 
Sadducees,  400-402;  take  the 
lead  in  persecution  of  Jesus, 
451-485 


INDEX 


513 


Samaria,  83-90,  254,  303 
Samaritan,  parable  of,  262-263 
Sermon  on  the  mount,  analysis 

of,  137-150 
Seventy  sent  out,  257 
Sheckemites,  84 
Sidon,   139 
Sidonian,  96 
Siloam,  pool  of,  266 
Simon,  24;   the  Zelot,  139;   the 

Pharisee,  162;   the  Cyrenean, 

472 
Socrates,  276 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  67 
Solomon,  276,  302;    porch  of. 

Son  of  God,  Jesus  claim  to  be, 

129 
Spain,  224 
Star,  new,  25-26 
Stilling  the  storm,  186-187 
Stone  mason,   134 
Suetonius,  25 
Sychem,  35,  105 
Synagogue,  94,  151 ;  healing  in, 

312 
Syria,  96 

Tabernacles,  feast  of,  257,  266, 
296 


Tacitus,  25 

Temple,    Jesus    first    cleanses, 

7^-72)  'y  Jesus  leaving,  407 
Temptation   of  Jesus,   lessons, 

54 
Thieves  on  the  cross,  477 
Thomas,  calling  of,   139 
Thompson,  Dr.,   155 
Tiberius,  130;    emperor,  505 
Tribute  money,  249-251 
Tristram,  237 

Tvi^elve,  the,  j(ppointing  of,  139 
Tyre,  130,  141 

Uzzah,  22 

Veil  of  temple,  479 
Washing  disciples'  feet,  ^^ 
Wedding  garment,  395 
Witness,   three,    128 
Woman,      sinful,      163;       that 

touched  Saviour's  robe,  167; 

brought     before     Jesus     by 

Pharisees,  273 

Zacharias,  19,  40,  42 

Zachchaeus,  326 

Zebedee,   sons  of,   108    442 


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